What happens when a child needs medical care, but lacks access or funds for treatment? For many Americans, the answer is to get on the Big Blue Bus. Sponsored by the non-profit Children’s Health Fund and staffed by doctors and nurses, the mobile clinics travel around cities giving free check-ups and consultations. The service can be a lifesaver for low-income families or homeless teens. “We know that homeless youth are not going to come to a hospital or health center unless it’s an emergency,” Big Blue Bus veteran Dr. Alan Shapiro recently told NBC News. “So we bring the mobile clinic to them.” Shapiro, who works mostly in the South Bronx where half of children live below the poverty line, has treated thousands of kids in the 20 years he’s been working on the mobile clinics. There are more than 50 Big Blue Buses operating across the country in places such as Michigan, Louisiana and West Virginia. According to the Children’s Health Fund’s website, the organization has helped 200,000 children in some of the most disadvantaged rural and urban communities in the nation.
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Tag: medical checkups
How Crowdsourcing Medical Bills Can Usher in a New Era of Health Care Transparency
Clarification appended February 10, 2014.
Despite all the changes that the Affordable Care Act has brought to the U.S. health care industry, many patients still don’t know the up-front costs of common procedures and checkups. Enter Doctible (working title), a website that will allow patients to compare out-of-pocket costs on common procedures in their area, as well as view doctor ratings based on patient reviews. The site was conceived after Erich Graham, 27, injured himself playing hockey a few years ago. He realized that he was going to need an MRI, and because he had a high-deductible plan, he knew it was probably going to be expensive. Graham tried shopping around for the best price in his area, and found it almost impossible to learn the real costs before the imaging was performed. “It’s like looking at apartments, checking out the amenities, meeting the landlord, signing the lease, and then finding out what the rent is,” he told Fast Company.
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Graham knew there had to be a better way, so he teamed up with a fellow graduate from Cornell Tech, Greg Tobkin, 28, and together they came up with an idea to allow consumers to crowdsource their doctor bills, in order to inform other users of their medical experiences — and most importantly, the costs of procedures and checkups. The pair is currently seeking funding and advisers to help them navigate the tricky world of health care pricing. But while there are some barriers to overcome before launch, Graham and Tobkin know that, given the success of sites like ZocDoc and Yelp, which already offer patient reviews, the ability to compare health care costs is a service that could be incredibly helpful. “This will definitely exist in five years, whether it’s us or someone else who does it,” Tobkin says. “There’s too big a need.”
Clarification: Doctible was the working title of Graham and Tobkin’s Cornell Tech project. Their idea is not related to the startup Doctible, a website that allows consumers to negotiate prices on medical bills. Graham and Tobkin are seeking a new name for their venture, and are in talks with startup accelerators to get their idea off the ground.