« World's Oldest Child (Fossils) | Main | Chicken or the Egg?: Comorbid Periodontal and Heart Disease »
September 24, 2006
"Priceline"-style Dentistry in Germany
A new trend in Germany is web sites for patients seeking dental care. These sites allow patients to anonymously post what sort of dental services they seek (along with treatment plans provided by their current dentist), and then dentists bid what they would charge to provide that service. This is a dramatically different approach to providing healthcare. Here in the US, this approach has been seen extensively in other topics, such as travel (Priceline.com) and insurance (Progressive.com).
Online Dentistry: Health Care Takes to the Net / Deutsche Welle (September 1, 2006): http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2152304,00.html
"In the search for more affordable dental care, some Germans are letting dentists bid at online auction sites for the chance to work in their mouths. Dentists' groups are worried about the commodification of health care."
"Schikora's Web site ... require people looking for dental work, or in some cases physical therapy and cosmetic surgery, to register anonymously and post their current doctor's treatment plans, how much the treatment is estimated to cost and how far they would be willing to travel."
Posted by pfa at September 24, 2006 01:04 PM