What If Choosing a Surgeon Was Just One Click Away?

When your doctor tells you surgery is in your future, it leads to a lot of emotions and questions: "Who do I choose? How am I going to pay for it?"

In an effort to make the whole process easier and less intimidating, Dr. Arnon Krongrad developed Surgeo.com, a website where patients can choose their surgeon, location, and flat-rate price.

"It's really important because what we're seeing around us today is the contraction of choice. It's the opposite of what we want," the Miami surgeon told CBN News.

"Consumers deserve more choice, not less choice. This is a refuge from the bureaucracy and the complexity and the minutia that surrounds us every day in our healthcare ecosystem," he said.

Krongrad chose surgeons for the site who are top in their field and highly recommended by their peers.

"Surgeo's based on a very simple premise: nobody knows surgeons like other surgeons," Krongrad explained. "So we find surgeons who are extremely highly qualified and we ask them a simple question: 'If you need this procedure, who would you go to yourself?'"

How It Works

Surgeo's doctors develop their own all-inclusive package for just one upfront price.

Surgeo allows the consumer to compare bundled packages and choose which one they like best. Americans are used to seeing this model on websites for travel, insurance and cable television, but this is new healthcare.

First, patients click on the recommended procedure, such as a knee replacement. Then up pops several packages designed by various doctors across the country.

Each package clearly displays an all-inclusive price that covers the surgeon's fee, anesthesia, physical therapy, the hospital stay and the implant.

The one price usually covers the cost of dealing with complications that may arise during or after the surgery. That means Surgeo patients don't have to worry about getting an unexpected bill in the mail.

Krongrad says Surgeo is the best way for patients to rest assured they are going to a highly qualified professional that has been credentialed by some of the toughest critics: other surgeons.

"Patients will act in surprising ways," he remarked. "They don't only want to go down the corner. They don't only want to go to the closest surgeon. Sometimes they're looking for something very specific, like the best surgeon, and they'll travel half a continent away to get what they're looking for."

Medicine Minus the Paperwork

Krongrad said the nation's best surgeons are drawn to Surgeo because it allows them to practice medicine without the increasingly overwhelming amount of paperwork that has taken over the lives of too many of our physicians.

He has a personal understanding of the fact that doctors simply want to practice medicine.

"I went on my first house call when I was six," Krongrad recalled. "My father was a doctor. My first medical experience was, 'Get out of bed. Somebody's got a problem. Do something about it.' There was a sense of urgency; there was a sense of real importance."

"I think that was influential as to why I went to medical school. But imagine if my dad had woken me up and said, 'Get up, we're installing a new electronic medical record.' Would I have gone to medical school? I mean, the obvious answer is no," he said.

Reconstructive urologist Dr. Dean Knoll participates in Surgeo. His practice is based in Nashville, Tennessee.

"When I heard about it being a healthcare logistics company that was driven by surgeons, I was quite excited," he said.

No More Unexpected Bills

Knoll said the upfront pricing gives patients the answers they deserve.

"If you look at the healthcare industry, it's the only service sector that we really don't know the cost of procedures," he explained. "Because it varies from city to city, it varies from hospital to hospital, and subsequently the patients - particularly if their coverage, their insurance coverage, doesn't cover this procedure - they're lost."

Knoll helped develop the Surgeo panel of doctors. He brings nearly 30 years of experience and travels the world teaching surgery.

"When I do get the opportunity to operate with another surgeon, it usually becomes quite apparent very early on in the experience whether or not this is going to be a very, very good surgeon or not," he said.

Kimberly Langer, who helped start the service, said Surgeo can even build custom surgery packages.

"If you need a service in either a particular location, or you want one that's not listed on the website, we can absolutely put something together, usually within a few days," she said. "We have a phenomenal network of surgeons that can reach out and find equally qualified surgeons in different areas."

Although Surgeo currently serves self-pay patients, Langer said it's useful for anyone considering surgery because it reveals all of the various expenses that go into a surgery.

"The first thing I recommend is that people just look," she told CBN News. "If anything, it's going to provide you an opportunity to look and see the things you need to consider as being included in your surgery."

"So regardless of whether you select a surgery service from Surgeo, or if you decide you want to go to a different source, you at least know, 'These are the major components that I need to know, that I have in place, that are otherwise going to be financial surprises that I'm not going to want," she said.

Surgeo.com brings choosing a surgeon into the digital age and takes away many of the questions and worried for patients in the process.