Name your own price comes to the health care industry

There’s a way you can save big bucks on medical care, but it takes you into a realm a lot of people aren’t comfortable with.

I love Priceline for saving money on hotels and car rentals. I’m willing to take the chance that comes along with not knowing where I’ll stay or what car rental I’ll get until after I pay my money non-refundable. Most people won’t go through the trouble of blind booking though.

In health care, there’s a similar kind of thing. Only a tiny percent of people will shop for treatment before the services are rendered. So the savings go to those who are brave enough to try it. That has opened up a marketplace where, based upon the Priceline model, you put the care you need out for bid on BidonHealth.com.

This site gives you the opportunity to save on labs, radiological tests and more. They claim they will save you an average of 60%. That’s very possible with how health care is priced! I think this is a great idea if you have high deductible insurance or no insurance at all.

I read in The Arizona Republic  about a woman who needed an MRI of her spine. She had a high-deductible health plan and would have had to have paid $3,200. So she went on to BidonHealth.com and bid $350 for the same procedure.

Well, her offer was accepted! She had a longer drive than she would have otherwise to get to the facility that gave her the low price. But she saved nearly 90%.

Now, you won’t save 90% all the time. But medicine is going to a different business model, step by step in fits and starts. And you being aggressive shopping for medical services will be so much a part of the system.

Particularly astute critics of this idea may say that there’s a big difference from the quality of one lab to another or one radiologist to another. But there’s no way for the average layperson to know that. So we’ve got to go by price alone. And on that count, BidonHealth excels in helping you shop for a provider.