50 Patients Seek Screening for Colon Cancer In First 2 Weeks

8-Mar-2011

MediBid started a program to reimburse patients for the $25 service fee, making it free for them to receive Bids on the website. The MediBid team was quite surprised that when given the chance to receive bids at no cost, patients chose a Colonoscopy above anything else.

With the signing of two agreements with very large self-pay user groups, MediBid.com received more than 50 requests for Colonoscopies in the last 2 weeks, raising this crucial medical screening to the site’s most requested procedure.

Patients turn to MediBid.com to get special, customized medical price Bids from physicians and hospitals. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire’s online information system estimates that most patients without insurance will see a bill of $3,280 for this cancer screening.

MediBid has reported prices averaging just $942.

“Pricing varies from region to region,” commented MediBid.com president and CEO, Ralph Weber. “We’ve seen Bids come in as low as $500 for a Colonoscopy, but not every patient will want to travel to Tennessee.”

Two weeks ago, MediBid started a program to reimburse patients for the $25 service fee, making it free for them to receive Bids on the website. The MediBid team was quite surprised that when given the chance to receive Bids at no cost, patients chose a Colonoscopy above anything else.

“Many of these patients commented that they lost a parent to colon cancer in the last few years,” said Weber. “When they had the opportunity to get the best price and value on any medical procedure, they immediately went for the Colonoscopy. Some said that although it was important to them, they had been putting off out of fear that it would cost a few thousand dollars. When paying out-of-pocket, that was just too much, even when they knew colon cancer was in their family.”

Dr. Lee Kurisko, MediBid’s Chief Medical Officer, said that the physicians and hospitals that provide the custom Bids to these patients are very excited by the sudden increase in demand for Gastroenterologists, and that he hopes to see more physicians and hospitals join soon to help provide as much access and choice as possible, something that wasn’t available to him before he moved to the United States from Canada.

Quality, Access, Choice, Transparency, and Value are the core values of MediBid.com, a site developed to meet the needs of the self-pay patient.

About MediBid

MediBid.com is the Marketplace for Medicine,™ an interactive marketplace that empowers cash paying patients to seek medical care from doctors, hospitals, and facilities locally and around the world. Patients who use MediBid's uncompromisingly unique, highly secure, needs-matching technology can acquire the best cost-to-value services anywhere. Physicians and hospitals interested in joining should call 888-855-6334 for more information, or go to http://www.medibid.com/register.