Healthcare Just A Click Away!

Imagine being able to go online and seamlessly access a network of highly qualified local surgeons and specialists.

Patients could log on to a website, select the doctor they want to see and, for a $300 fee, request an appointment — all without a trip to a primary-care doctor, co-payment, a battery of tests and a referral.
Vascular surgeon Paula Muto of Andover imagined just that.

She calls it UBERDOC. Launched in December, the patient-to-specialist web app instantly connects patients needing urgent medical care directly to a choice of specialists, bypassing the insurance system that can stall the delivery of health care.
“UBERDOC puts the patients in charge,” Muto said. “The doctor works only for the patient, a very transparent and open relationship. That’s why we call it the new face of old-fashioned medicine.”
Muto comes from a family of surgeons, working out of her father’s office in Lawrence. She knows firsthand the challenges and obstacles patients now experience in the current system.
Many times, she said, patients already know what their medical problems are without needing to be seen first by their primary-care physicians, which can often take months for an appointment.
“Surgeons are always trained to listen to patients’ chief complaints. The first symptoms they give are often the problem,” Muto said.
Beyond a visit to a primary-care doctor, there are a number of steps patients go through before they reach a specialist or surgeon. Those steps add up both in time and cost.
“UBERDOC seeks to increase the access and decrease the cost by avoiding all the steps and by giving patients the choice of finding a local specialist and a time convenient for them outside of insurance restrictions,” Muto said.
Muto said she’s encountered patients who put off addressing medical issues because they don’t have the time to navigate the system. UBERDOC aims to ease the process.
“The beautiful part is you see the surgeon right away — you don’t have to wait or worry …,” she said. “(It’s) great for folks who can’t or don’t want to wait for referrals — they can focus on the problem.”
Muto has reached out to more than 300 specialists, including orthopedics, general surgeons, urologists, ENTs, gynecologists, and vascular surgeons, from across Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire to build her team of participants.
She said the response from her fellow surgeons, locally and nationally, has been overwhelming. Many doctors agreed to lower their office visit price to participate. She said the $300 fee charged by UBERDOC ($50 to make the appointment and $250 for the visit) is lower than what insurance companies charge, but above what Medicare would pay.
“We are thrilled that so many specialists, especially in our community, are willing to lower the price and make it easier for the patient,” Muto said. “They recognize the problems in the system.”
Muto emphasized the importance of keeping care affordable to patients.

“The scary part (of the current system) is you don’t know what it will cost you,” she said. “… (UBERDOC) takes out that element.”
“So much of our health care is dictated by what the insurance requires,” she added, “or what is best for the network. UBERDOC puts the patients in charge.”
Muto and her team are launching the concept for UBERDOC locally to start and are excited to see where it takes them.
“It’s nice to know a very qualified surgeon or specialist is going to be able to see you and give you that opinion,” she said.
“At the end of the day, surgeons want to solve problems. They want to take on the complex cases.”
For more information, visit uber-docs.com, or UBERDOC's Facebook and Twitter pages.