I was a bit surprised recently when I read something like "...in the 22-year history of HomeAdvisor..." I didn't know they have been around for over 20 years! I believe my memory of the company/site/app goes back maybe 6 years or so?

Point being, DOC$ is not very well known, yet...sorta like HomeAdvisor for at least part of that 14-year stretch before I ever heard of them. We are working to get to the point where tens of thousands of users per day are logging on, searching for medical price info (How much does a local MRI cost?) and using our easy add screens to report what they spend on individual Healthcare purchases.

There IS some price info out there; but it is VERY difficult to find. Just as an experiment, I looked at the site for "Farm Bureau Health Plans" for my local area, Shelby County, TN. This is the Memphis metro area. A "Provider Network" link led me not to another Farm Bureau page, but instead to a UnitedHealthCare site (?—Aren't they competitors?) where I was invited to click successive links until I got a list of medical imaging Providers. I searched "MRI-Knee-w/o Contrast" which I take to mean "no injected dye contrast" and for which Providers normally use billing code "73721." If your Provider or insurance company properly bills/reports, they should include this or a very closely similar code.

I was given a price range of $445-1,412.00 for this procedure, and a list of Providers. There was NO price information by individual Provider, only the "range." Also, missing from the list was "Millenium MRI" located right across the Mississippi River in the neighboring community of Marion, AR. This is about a 30-40 minute drive from where I live. On their website, Millenium features an MRI price of $450.00. They also say they will "get you in and out in about 30 minutes," and that you will leave there with a CD for your physician who ordered the test.

This is all very interesting because the most popular local imaging center features a "discount price" of around $1,050.00. That's about a $600.00 difference (see how I did that—straight subtraction!) and definitely worth some checking since even with my excellent health coverage, I'll probably be paying for ALL of this MRI (No, actually my knee is FINE, this is just an academic excercise) once it's been run through my policy and then the bill arrives.

DOC$ has a way to help with this convoluted vendor (YES, let's call them what they are—VENDORS of Healthcare/medical services) labyrinth that exists out there. DOC$ wants to be THE one-stop-shopping source on the web (app coming) to find the Providers with the best values in your community—wherever you are in the country. We're starting with the Memphis metro area, and with a limited amount of information on key procedures. But we are in the process of building this resource to eventually be everywhere. It can be found on our Provider Deals page. You'll be asked to log in, then you'll see a screen to input your zipcode for a search in your metro area. If you want to see how it will work, input a Memphis zipcode like "38104."

Yes, it will be some time before a few million users have input their own purchase info for comparison shopping. That's what we really want to get to; it'll be the best, and most complete information for all of us to share, resulting in real price transparency in Healthcare! But for now, you can help by 1) adding some of your own info (click "Add A Record" under your username once logged in), and 2) telling us in the comments (or comment to the LinkedIn post) if you know a Provider in your area who you think is a superior value. We'll check it out. Thanks!

Know the Cost of Healthcare BEFORE You Go In!