MediBid.com Empowers Physicians to Expand Their Fee for Service Practice with New Online Portal

With over 45 million uninsured in the United States and a healthcare debate raging hotly over President Barack Obama’s plans for health insurance reform in the United States, one visionary company has created a solution to the healthcare issues that transcends traditional boundaries. MediBid connects physicians to patients in a free-market environment without care for their insurance plan or even their native country. The MediBid portal connects patients directly to doctors. Participating physicians can expand their practice by offering medical services to cash paying patients without interference from the medical middlemen who drive costs skyward without improving care.

Paso Robles, CA (Vocus) December 30, 2009 -- The costs of running a healthcare practice have skyrocketed in recent years. This poses a significant challenge to physicians who simply want to provide quality care to their patients. As politicians debate solutions in the United States, medical tourism takes patients around the globe in search of care they could get right in their own backyard.

“The medical middleman has driven up costs for both patients and physicians without regard for quality of care,” says Ralph Weber, MediBid founder and CEO. “Medical bureaucracy interferes with the practice of medicine. This is bad for doctors and patients. We don’t need change, we need a solution.”

Opening to patients on January 1, 2010, MediBid.com is the solution. Touted as the Marketplace for Medicine, this online portal helps cash paying patients connect with medical practitioners. MediBid allows doctors to set their own prices based on the patients' needs and gives patients a choice. Physicians tailor bids on a case-by-case basis, which empowers them to find new patients and enhance their practice. The best part: MediBid does not regulate prices. Patients pay doctors or facilities directly, a move that leaves the medical middleman out in the cold.

MediBid is much more than a medical directory or medical tourism facilitator; it is the solution to everything patients and doctors don’t like about healthcare. Offering patients unrestricted universal access, for a host of medical treatments, MediBid allows doctors and patients to work through the issue of cost on everything from primary care to the most critical of care.

“MediBid helps physicians to expand their fee for service practice through private contracting,” said Weber. “By removing the middleman from medical care, MediBid makes it possible for the uninsured, the underinsured, Canadians on a waiting list, people using a high deductible health care plan with an HRA or HSA, and people seeking experimental procedures, elective surgery or a non covered procedure to be able to afford the care they want and need.”

Physicians, or Bidders as they are called on MediBid, respond to requests for care from Patients, or Seekers. Doctors can specify their fee for service knowing they will receive that compensation without a middleman taking a cut. Built using proprietary technology, MediBid offers security, privacy and choice, without adding overhead to the process.

“MediBid.com was founded on a belief that universal access can be accomplished by reviving the free-market healthcare system,” said Weber. “Interest from patients during the beta phase was strong and the response by physicians has been overwhelmingly supportive. This is truly an idea whose time has come.”

About MediBid
MediBid is an interactive marketplace to allow cash paying patients to seek medical care from doctors, hospitals, and facilities both locally and around the world. More than a physician directory, it is a resource where medical consumers can find a doctor, then actively seek bids for the care they need. It gives physicians a direct connection to their patients without interference from the medical middlemen who seek to line their pockets with money paid by people in need. MediBid's founders share an unrelenting drive to change the status quo in the field of healthcare financing. Focused on building strong patient-physician relationships, while supporting the patient’s privacy rights and choice in the medical market place, MediBid’s goal is to provide the best opportunity for consumers to self-direct their medical care. Patients who use MediBid's uncompromisingly unique, highly secure, needs-matching technology can acquire the best cost-to-value services anywhere.

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