You can buy almost anything online these days, but try shopping the Internet for an MRI, strep throat test or even an annual physical exam and you’ll run into roadblocks. A new Twin Cities company called Carol is trying to change that with a Web site that gives consumers a ‘care marketplace’ to search for medical services, compare quality and price and make appointments. Carol joins an effort to transform the U.S. health care system by putting consumers in charge and letting the market do its work. ‘We want to let consumers define value,’ said Tony Miller, Carol’s founder and chief executive officer. ‘We don’t have care competition in the marketplace today.’ The free site, which went live in January, generates revenue from health care providers who become ‘tenants’ on the site. When a consumer sets up an appointment with a clinic or doctor on Carol.com, the provider pays the site a fee. While limited to about 30 providers in the Twin Cities area at its launch, the company is adding others and plans to serve a second U.S. market sometime this year, Miller said. Health care experts said Carol will face challenges in getting enough doctors and health plans to participate. But they said it goes farther than previous efforts to use the Web to enhance medical choice, and they praised its ease of use. Instead of going through a list of doctors or clinics, users tell the site what they’re looking for by clicking on parts of the body.
Please click on the link below to read the Forbes.com article:
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/02/10/afx4636965.html
For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.
