FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ's)

• Who is Medicine Online?
  
• What is Bid For Surgery?
  
• What is the Mission of Bid For Surgery?
  
• How Does Bid For Surgery's Reverse Auction Work?
  
• What Types of Procedures Will Be Available on Bid For Surgery?
  
• Who Came Up With the Idea for Bid For Surgery?
  
• Why Should I Use Bid For Surgery?
  
• What Does Bid For Surgery cost the Consumer and Healthcare Provider?
  
• Do Physicians or Dentists Pay a Fee For Participating in Bid For Surgery?
  
• Which Professions May Post a Bid on Bid For Surgery?
  
• How Do Physicians and Dentists Price Their Bids?
  
• What is the Process for a Consumer to Post a Procedure on Bid For Surgery?
  
• Does Medicine Online Inc. Pre-Select Physicians or Dentists to Participate in Bid For Surgery?
  
• Does Medicine Online Inc. Validate or Verify the Credentials of Physicians or Dentists Who Participate in Bid For Surgery?
  
• Will Medicine Online Inc. Refer or Recommend Consumers to Select a Particular Physician or Dentist?
  
• Will Bid For Surgery Be Available to Consumers throughout the USA?
  
• What If There Are No Responses to a Consumer's Desired Procedure?
  
• Are There Age Limitations on Consumers Who May Post a Desired Procedure on Bid For Surgery?
  
• Does the Bid For Surgery Business Model Meet Regulatory Requirements?
  
• Is MedicineOnline.com a Referral Service or Agency?
  
• How Does Medical Insurance Enter into Bid For Surgery?
  

Who is Medicine Online Inc.?

Medicine Online Inc., launched in 1995, is a privately held California corporation and developer of two online healthcare sites, www.mol.net (for physicians and healthcare professionals) and www.medicineonline.com (for consumers). These sites offer online healthcare information exchange, original and linked clinical content, Internet connectivity services and solutions, community services, and e-commerce transactions that attract over one million page views monthly.

What is Bid For Surgery?

Bid For Surgery is a patent-pending, Web-based reverse auction site for elective, cosmetic surgery, cosmetic dentistry, LASIK laser vision correction surgery and podiatric surgery. Bid For Surgery enables you, a consumer of medical services, to search for and select providers of your choice via an online, competitive bidding process.

What is the Mission of Bid For Surgery?

To empower consumers to take charge of their own healthcare when seeking elective, aesthetic medical procedures-- cosmetic surgery, dentistry, ophthalmology and podiatry-- and thereby become the dominant online resource and auction "location, location, location" for both consumers and professional providers.

How Does Bid For Surgery's Reverse Auction Work?

Reverse auction utilizes a competitive bidding process where you, the healthcare consumer, post a desired medical or dental procedure online. Professional healthcare providers compete to offer their best total procedure fee to perform your procedure. A consumer need not select the lowest total procedure fee as in a traditional auction; in this reverse auction, the doctor with the most preferred combination of credentials, qualifications and price wins the consumer's business.

What Types of Procedures Will Be Available on Bid For Surgery?

All types of cosmetic surgery including liposuction, rhinoplasty, breast enlargement, reduction and lift, face lift, eyelid modification, hair replacement, chemical face peels, etc. Cosmetic dentistry including whitening, bonding, veneers, porcelain crowns, implants, etc. LASIK surgery. Podiatric surgery including bunionectomy.

Who Came Up with the Idea of Bid For Surgery?

Bid For Surgery was conceived by a board-certified podiatric surgeon, Dr. Paul Han. Dr. Han has a patent pending on the technology to implement reverse auctions for professional services, upon which Bid For Surgery is based.

Why Should I Use Bid For Surgery?

Bid For Surgery saves you time, money and effort when seeking elective surgery or dental procedures, by enabling you to post your procedure online and draw qualified doctors to seek you. Bid For Surgery's virtual marketspace leverages the reach, speed, and efficiencies of the Internet to resolve the inefficient physical marketplace for elective, aesthetic medical procedures.

Greater freedom of choice among doctors means more control of your own health. Bid For Surgery provides the resources to investigate, evaluate and compare physicians' and dentists' total procedure fee, practice location, practice specialty, experience, success rate and other relevant qualifications before choosing to proceed.

What Does Bid For Surgery Cost the Consumer and Healthcare Provider?

There is no charge to the physician/dentist.

There is a one-time charge of $1.00 to view the results of the bid process. There is a modest charge to the consumer based on the price of the completed procedure. This amount is added to the bid amount and is clearly displayed before the consumer is asked to authorize the charge. The amount of the fee is as low as $20 and can be as high as $95 for procedures costing over $4,000.

Do Physicians or Dentists Pay a Fee for Participating in Bid For Surgery?

Nope. Of course, patients are responsible to pay agreed procedure fees to their physicians or dentists.

Which Professions May Post a Bid on Bid For Surgery?

Doctors of Medicine (MDs), Doctors of Osteopathy (DOs), Doctors of Podiatric Medicine (DPMs), Doctors of Dental Surgery (DDSs), and Doctors of Dental medicine (DMDs) may post a bid on Bid For Surgery.

MedicineOnline.com will require 1) professional license number, 2) Drug Enforcement Administration registration number, 3) office practice address, plus other information on practice and credentials to qualify a doctor to post on Bid For Surgery.

How Do Physicians and Dentists Price Their Bids?

Physicians and dentists specializing in cosmetic procedures and physicians specializing in LASIK vision correction make every effort to offer a global or integrated fee structure. In Bid For Surgery's reverse auction, doctors are requested to bid their best "total procedure fee." Included in the total procedure fee are their own professional fees, fees of any other required provider, facility fees, and any diagnostic exam or test fees associated with the procedure. Bid For Surgery's goal is to present an all-inclusive price to the patient.

What is the Process for a Consumer to Post a Procedure on Bid For Surgery?

Patients post their desired procedure(s) A consumer/potential patient logs onto MedicineOnline.com at www.medicineonline.com, clicks through Bid For Surgery, selects the desired medical specialty, and selects the desired procedure within that specialty (for example, cosmetic surgery as the specialty and rhinoplasty as the specific procedure). When the patient selects a desired procedure, a simple procedure-specific personal/medical form is provided. A patient could choose to have more than one procedure performed at the same time (for example, face lift and rhinoplasty) and would fill in multiple forms. After completing the data form, and clicking on "Submit," the desired procedure and form is posted to a password-protected secure server without revealing the identity of the patient. Again, all identifying information is kept private but accessible to the patient. Doctors see only the anonymous form identified by an auction number and patient number. 72-hour competitive bidding process MedicineOnline.com then e-mails physicians and dentists who are a) registered with MedicineOnline.com, b) participating in Bid For Surgery, c) specialized in performing the procedure, and d) practicing within the geographic area selected by the patient. The doctors are given 72 hours to view the patient's requirements and personal/medical form, then respond to the patient with a bid price for the procedure and their own credentials. The doctor's identity is anonymous to the patient at this stage. Doctors do not see identities or bids of competing doctors, either, though they do know the number of bids posted and the geographical area in which the bidders practice. During the 72-hour reverse auction process, doctors may post multiple bids if they choose to lower price. Patients can view activity at all times-- even amend or delete their requirements and histories-- by logging onto MedicineOnline.com. The auction is dynamic, interactive and anonymous. 7 day patient review and selection period 72 hours after a patient posts his or her required procedure to Bid For Surgery, the patient receives an e-mail from MedicineOnline.com that the bidding is terminated and the reverse auction is closed. Names and contact data of all responding doctors are revealed to the patient at this time. Doctors' bids are valid for seven days, so the patient has 7 days to review bids and credentials, and contact any or all doctors to schedule a mandatory, free face-to-face consultation. We recommend these consultations be held within 21 days from the close of the auction. Face-to-face consultation At the free, face-to-face consultation, both parties can begin to establish the patient/doctor relationship. The doctor will perform a pre-operative or pre-treatment patient evaluation and review the fees for the procedure. Together, the patient and doctor can decide whether to proceed with surgery or treatment, and all logistics of timing, location, etc. During or after the face-to-face consultation, either the patient or doctor may decline to proceed for any reason whatsoever and without any obligation to the other. While this caveat is obvious, Bid For Surgery relies on the good faith of all parties and professional medical judgment of doctors to complete the transaction. When the patient and doctor agree to proceed, the patient must fulfill any payment obligations to the doctor.

Does Medicine Online Inc. Pre-Select Physicians or Dentists to Participate in Bid For Surgery?

No. Medicine Online Inc. maintains a registry of doctors who subscribe to the services and content of our professional healthcare site www.mol.net. Participation in www.mol.net is separate from participation in Bid For Surgery; however, doctors may freely choose to participate in both.

Does Medicine Online Inc. Validate or Verify the Credentials of Physicians or Dentists Who Participate in Bid For Surgery?

No. The credentials of physicians or dentists who participate in Bid For Surgery will not be verified or validated by Medicine Online Inc. or its various sites. However we download infomation on individual physicians from third party sites like the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Board of Medical Specially (ABMS), and state and local public agencies, private organizations and other sources. This information is available free to all consumers at www.medicineonline.com, whether or not they participate in Bid For Surgery.

In order for doctors to participate in Bid For Surgery, they must first register with our professional healthcare site www.mol.net. To register, we require-- at a minimum-- a professional license number, a Drug Enforcement Administration registration number, and an office practice address.

While Medicine Online Inc. does not verify or validate credentials of physicians or dentists, we do provide informational content and resources that will assist a prospective patient to do so; for example, on the Bid For Surgery site, content describes "How to Choose a Physician or Dentist." A prospective patient may investigate, evaluate and compare the credentials of physicians and dentists via links provided by www.medicineonline.com, links provided by a number of national and state professional organizations like the American Board of Medical Specialties and the California Medical Board, and on the doctors' own practice Websites.

Will Medicine Online Inc. Refer or Recommend Consumers to Select a Particular Physician or Dentist?

No. Medicine Online Inc. will not refer or recommend that consumers choose a particular physician or dentist. Consumers have freedom of choice and should select physicians or dentists based on their own criteria.

Will Bid For Surgery Be Available to Consumers throughout the USA?

We are expanding Bid For Surgery nationally although participating doctors are now clustered around major metropolitan areas. Consumers outside the USA may register for Bid For Surgery, provide a participating physician or dentist would perform their requested procedures inside the USA.

What If There Are No Responses to a Consumer's Desired Procedure?

If there are no responding bids within 72 hours, MedicineOnline.com will be notified and in turn will e-mail the consumer that a match was not found. Ideally, this will never happen.

Are There Age Limitations on Consumers Who May Post a Desired Procedure on Bid For Surgery?

Yes. Consumers must be of legal age, 18 years old. Minors under 18 will require the written consent of a parent or legal guardian before submitting personal or medical information to www.medicineonline.com.

Does the Bid For Surgery Business Model Meet Regulatory Requirements?

Yes. In the highly regulated healthcare industry, Medicine Online Inc. has received appropriate legal opinion and will, on an ongoing basis, continue to monitor compliance with federal and state laws that apply to our services and operations.

Is MedicineOnline.com a Referral Service or Agency?

No. MedicineOnline.com is not a referral service or agency; it is an electronic forum for consumers of elective surgery and dentistry to seek and select physicians and dentists of their choice, via a simple and efficient competitive bidding process that saves consumers time, money and effort.

Medicine Online Inc. believes that its business model benefits consumers and maintains high legal, ethical and moral standards. Bid For Surgery simulates the physical marketplace by bringing together consumers and doctors of their choice. By mandating that they meet in a free, face-to-face consultation, both parties can establish the patient/doctor relationship, can complete pre-operative or pre-treatment evaluation, and can decide to proceed or opt out for any reason with no obligation to each other.

Through the competitive bidding process, we empower consumers with knowledge to take control of their own healthcare, saving time, money and effort. Doctors who participate in Bid For Surgery will also benefit by extending the reach of their practice at no cost, in fact saving them administrative and marketing costs.

How Does Medical Insurance Enter into Bid For Surgery?

Medical insurance doesn't enter into Bid For Surgery's model because the contemplated surgical and dental procedures are elective and aesthetic, not typically reimbursed by third-party payers.