No matter which side of the political spectrum you are on, we can all agree that fixing healthcare in our country is an extremely complicated issue. While many on the left would argue for single payer platforms or medicare for all, those on the right would argue that these ideas would cost too much money and end up raising taxes to an unacceptably high level for the average American. But what if there was a different option that would give patients and health care providers a little more freedom from these politicized avenues? This is where the new online health care marketplace site Slingshot Health believes the future of healthcare is heading.
Slingshot Health aims to change how we approach healthcare with its open marketplace
[Photo Credit: iStock]
The site currently partners with different providers in the New York area so that patients can log on to the service to find out the cheapest available options that are out there at any given time. Slingshot Health will find the out-of-pocket rate for each procedure or medical visit so even if a patient does not have insurance, they can find the right price for them. This model will also help healthcare providers to make up the unexpected costs they may experience for unexpected cancellations.
All of the money is up front — with the patients paying their providers through the Slingshot health marketplace up front before they receive any treatment. Without the entanglements of going through a health insurance provider, the costs are out in the open with no fine print that could amount to hidden fees down the line. According to Slingshot Health founder Dr. David Berman MD, a Board-Certified Gastroenterologist and Internist in Manhattan, this kind of cut and dry approach to healthcare should be as attractive to patients as to providers as well.
“There is no a patient, American, or a human who will not use our service,” says Dr. Berman over the phone emphatically. “We offer accessibility, affordability and we’re completely transparent. None of that is available in the healthcare industry today.”
Transparency is the key here. As many know, you could be at a hospital for a procedure and you could need X-rays that may be out of your coverage even though they are performed underneath the same hospital’s ceilings. So why not have everyone be honest during these transactions? That quality is exactly what Dr. Berman would like to inject back into a system he thinks has gone too far in the wrong direction.
“I think the best way to look at it,” explains Dr. Berman adding “is that out of 330 million Americans everybody knows that healthcare is broken. Whether it’s the provider or the patient — even the insurance companies know it’s broken! Let’s be honest with each other, they lose hand over fist.”
For more information on how you can access the Slingshot Health marketplace, head over to slingshothealth.com.
