AID Member Launches UBERDOC, Connecting Patients with Specialists for One Easy Price

Many AID members are making a disruptive difference in the health-care arena. From time to time, we will feature them here.

Dr. Paula Muto, a general and vascular surgeon outside Boston, has been an independent doctor for 20 years. Like many specialists, she's grown frustrated by the increasing number of obstacles standing between her and her patients, so she created UBERDOC. 

The new web app connects patients to specialists without the need of a phone call, physician referral, or insurance authorization, for a single, transparent price -- $300 for non-Medicare, $50 for Medicare. Free to participating doctors, the platform not only schedules, bills, and collects, but also provides free online marketing. 

UBERDOC incorporated in 2016, launched its Beta test in 2017 with 45 specialists, and launched widely last March. 

Today, UBERDOC has more than 250 participating doctors in 25 states, with more joining daily. Patient traffic in 2019 is already double what it was at its peak last year.

Here's how it works: Any practicing physician who is board certified or board eligible, and affiliated with a hospital or ASC may join for free. Patients looking for a doctor of any specialty book an appointment through their app with a doctor in their area, avoiding the rigmarole of going through a primary care doctor. Once the doctor accepts, the patient is charged $50. After the appointment, the remaining $250 gets charged. 

UBERDOC takes $50 of every completed appointment with non-Medicare patients, so the doctor nets $250 per patient. For Medicare patients, the company takes $25 per transaction or half the initial fee, the doctor nets the remaining $25. If the doctor accepts Medicare, the doctor bills Medicare as usual.

Dr. Muto has shared her program with CMS, the VA, employers, and even state health agencies, who all see the benefit, and, more important, the need, for a simple, direct pay option, she said.

"Our model allows physicians to participate in a direct pay network, and also remain as both insurance and Medicare providers," she said. "Physician advocacy groups like AID have lent their support and helped spread the word."

For independent doctors, UBERDOC can help fight burnout. "No one is happy with the lack of autonomy, the bureaucracy, and the casual disregard for the health-care dollar. If we can restore the doctor-patient relationship by removing the obstacles in the middle, we have accomplished our goal, which is not to disrupt, but to restore," said Muto. 

The two videos below will tell you more. 

Dr. Muto invites any interested doctors to call or email her with questions: 

(978) 618-6470 or pmuto@mutosurgical.com. 

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