Bean Town Times

Dr. Paula M. Muto founded UBERDOC in 2016, an online health care platform that connects doctors directly with patients and guarantees price transparency in the process.

“Price transparency basically is the right thing to do," Muto told the Bean Town Times. "Even in a Medicare-for-all world, you want to make sure doctors and drug companies post their prices. You always want to make sure that price transparency underlies the psyche of a consumer who has to purchase insurance.” 

UBERDOC improves price transparency by offering patients the opportunity to book an appointment online with a specialist for $250, circumventing a primary care doctor visit and the need for a referral.

UBERDOC Founder Dr. Paula Muto says price transparency in medicine “is the right thing to do.” | Photo Courtesy of Pixabay

“Patients can just push a button without a referral on our website and don’t even have to call the doctor’s office for an appointment because specialists post available appointment slots on our site,” Muto said in an interview. “A patient selects a specialist and pays the doctor directly using a debit card, credit card or health savings account. You're getting a fair, transparent price for the service.” 

Although the initial fee is not always reimbursed by insurers, Muto says patients can switch from direct pay to insurance coverage after the first tele-visit with an UBERDOC specialist.

Without transparency, however, it’s open season and there's no regulation.

“You can have the same prescription drug priced at $50 to $500 depending on your insurance and that's part of the problem,” she said. “When you go into a doctor's office or a hospital and ask ‘What's this MRI going to cost me?’ The answer is always the same. 'It depends on your insurance.' That's wrong. There should be a price.”

On Jan. 24, 2019, Trump issued an executive order requiring the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to issue a proposed regulation forcing hospitals to post their prices for medical services. The American Hospital Association subsequently sued in an attempt to prevent price disclosure and lost before Judge Carl Nichols in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Trump tweeted on June 23, “Big victory for patients – Federal court upholds hospital price transparency. Patients deserve to know the price of care before they enter the hospital. Because of my action, they will. This may very well be bigger than health care itself.”

UBERDOC aspires to give patients a choice, Muto says, much in the way that Uber gives passengers choice in drivers and Airbnb gives choice to travelers.

“These companies didn't actually disrupt the travel or transportation industries, they made the hotel and ride service better,” she said. “You couldn't get a taxi in New York 10 years ago, but now there's too many of them and there’s a choice. We're hoping that with UBERDOC, the consumer is given a choice and the consumer will drive medicine. We want to return the stakes back to the patients and their doctor.”