1. HMD is an internet search tool that enables uninsured patients to access healthcare at an affordable cost. The advantages of HMD.com include:
   

1. Prompt access to care results in early intervention of illness thereby reducing the severity of illness.
2. The severity of illness is directly proportional to the cost of care. Early intervention lowers the cost of providing healthcare.
3. Prompt access to care decreases costly ‘crisis care’ in the emergency room.

2. The New-New Deal or ownership society advocated by the current administration will put traditional healthcare benefits out of reach for many individuals and families. HMD represents a tool for those patients to access healthcare at an affordable cost. Who will loose ownership of healthcare benefits in this new society?

Independent contractors

Laid off workers

Divorced single women and mothers

College students

Small business owners

The working poor and their children

3. Who are the uninsured? An uninsured patient is by no means an indigent or homeless patient.

In the U.S., 82 million people were uninsured at some point over the past two years. Most of these people were uninsured for at least nine months.

Four out of five of the uninsured were in working families. Of those working families, significant portions of the middle class were uninsured. For example, among people with incomes between 300 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level (between $55,980 and $74,640 in annual income for a family of four in 2003), more than one out of four were uninsured over the past two years.

The states with the largest number of uninsured people in the last two years were California (11.9 million), Texas (8.5 million), New York (5.6 million), Florida (4.8 million), Illinois (3.5 million), Pennsylvania (2.8 million), Ohio (2.8 million), Michigan (2.5 million), Georgia (2.5 million), and North Carolina (2.4 million).

Almost half of the uninsured were non-Hispanic whites. There were huge disparities in the uninsured rate based on race. Approximately 23.5 percent of non-Hispanic whites were uninsured in the past two years, compared to 42.9 percent for non-Hispanic blacks and 59.5 percent for Hispanics.

Texas had the highest rate of uninsured patients per capita with 43.4 percent of the non-elderly population uninsured. The other 13 states are: New Mexico (42.4%); California (37.1%); Nevada (36.8%); Louisiana (36.2%); Arizona (35.7%); Mississippi (35.1%); Oklahoma (35.0%); Alaska (35.0%); Florida (34.6%); Arkansas (34.4%); Idaho (33.8%); North Carolina (33.7%); and New York (33.4%).
(Source - www.familiesusa.org and The U.S. Census Bureau. 2003-04)

 

4. Free market economics return to the doctor’s office when patients start paying with cash. Patients can benefit from free market economics in a number of ways:

1. Cost savings are indeed recognized by doctors by eliminating the administrative cost of providing medical care. Those savings can be passed directly to patients.
2. Providers charge a ‘fair fee’ defined by what they feel they deserve. This fee is not inflated to be sure to all insurance companies will pay the provider the highest rate possible.
3. Doctors even compare HMD fees posted by other providers. "Am I too high, am I too low compared to my peers?" Public posting of fees on HMD will result in fair pricing of services through free market economics.

 

1. HMD represents physicians as an advocate for the uninsured. 19^th century physician Rudolf Virchow stated that the "physician was the natural advocate for the poor". HMD carries on the Virchow tradition by enabling physicians to treat all patients, not just those with health insurance.

2. Providing care is less expensive and infinitely easier when healthcare insurance is removed from the doctor/patient relationship. Doctors can reduce staff and capture savings by returning to a cash for service practice.

No waiting for payment.

No prior authorizations.

No determination of co-payments.

No retroactive denial of payment.

Less time spent in correspondence with insurers.

Fewer accounts sent to collections

 

3. Providing medical care is a business and businesses cannot run for free. HMD represents a new cash-for-service population of patients for doctors.

Services and fees are clearly posted on each HMD.com doctor’s profile page.

Payment is due at the time of service. This policy is made clear to patients throughout HMD.com.

4. HMD makes internet marketing simple for technophobic doctors.

HMD is an affordable web page dynamically created by the doctor and hosted inexpensively by HMD.

HMD doctor profiles can be updated or changed by the doctor or their representative 24/7.

 

1. Do uninsured patients have computers and access to the internet?

Total Adults 59%
Women 58%
Men 61%

18-29 72%
30-49 69%
50-64 59%
65+ 24%

White, Non-Hispanic 62%
Black, Non-Hispanic 45%
Hispanic 52%

Urban 60%
Suburban 63%
Rural 50%

Less than $30,000/yr 43%
$30,000-$50,000 65%
$50,000-$75,000 80%
More than $75,000 84%

Less than High School 22%
High School 48%
Some College 75%
College + 82%

2. What is the percentage of each healthcare dollar spent that goes to administration of medical claims?
   
   ‘In 1999, health administration costs totaled at least $294.3 billion in the United States, or $1,059 per capita, as compared with $307 per capita in Canada. After exclusions, administration accounted for 31.0 percent of health care expenditures in the United States and 16.7 percent of health care expenditures in Canada.’ (Source - Costs of Health Care Administration in the United States and Canada, The New England Journal Of Medicine, Volume 349:768-775 Number 8, August 2003 -http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/349/8/768)
   
3. What is the future of internet search tools?

In a February 6, 2005 New York Times article entitled ‘Is Online Retailing a Victim of Its Own Success?’ writer Conrad De Anelle, quotes internet marketing analyst Safa Rashtchy saying…. "Search still has tremendous growth in it," he said. "It's the most efficient way to acquire customers."