HealthSouth to Join Access Medical Card Network
HealthSouth Corporation, Birmingham, Alabama, has signed a contract for its surgery centers in the San Francisco Bay Area to join the AccessMedical Provider Network. HealthSouth joins a growing network of over 400 physicians and healthcare facilities to offer affordable healthcare alternatives for the uninsured and the self-pay patients who are members of the AccessMedicalCard program.
PLEASANTON, CA (PRWEB) May 13, 2004 -
– AccessMedicalCard Affordable Health Program announced today that HealthSouth Corporation, Birmingham, Alabama, has signed a contract for its surgery centers in the San Francisco Bay Area to join the AccessMedical Provider Network. HealthSouth joins a growing network of over 400 physicians and healthcare facilities to offer affordable healthcare alternatives for the uninsured and the self-pay patients who are members of the AccessMedicalCard program. AccessMedicalCard is not medical insurance. It is a healthcare discount program with direct contracts for reduced-fee healthcare with each of its providers. “Discounts for members of the AccessMedicalCard program are 40% below our standard fees”, says Karen Stevens, Administrator of the Tri-Valley Surgery Center, Pleasanton, CA.
HealthSouth CorporationÂ’s Bay Area surgery centers that have joined the AccessMedicalCard provider network include: Blackhawk Surgery Center, Danville, CA; Tri-Valley Surgery Center, Pleasanton, CA; Castro Valley Surgery Center, Castro Valley, CA; San Francisco Surgery Center, San Francisco; Forest Surgery Center, San Jose, CA
These HealthSouth surgery centers are licensed by the State of California and accredited by The Joint Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). HealthSouthÂ’s surgery centers are designed to meet the highest standards of care and to perform various types of outpatient surgical procedures such as orthopedics, ophthalmology, ENT, gynecology, gastroenterology, general surgery, plastic surgery and podiatry.
”With insurance coverage for many procedures being decreased and an increased number of self-pay patients, today’s medical consumers are looking for cost-effective alternatives. Advances in medical technology mean that many procedures that once required a hospital stay, can be now performed safely and effectively on an outpatient basis in a Surgery Center,” said Neurosurgeon, Robert Lieberson, M. D. who performs complex neurosurgical spine surgery at the Tri-Valley Surgery Center, Pleasanton, CA.
Discounts for outpatient surgeries include the fees of anesthesiologists and the surgeons who are also members of the AccessMedical Provider Network. AccessMedicalCard has reduced the price of outpatient surgeries by thousands of dollars. For example, the savings on a procedure such as a knee arthroscopy average $4,000 to $5,000. Savings on a colonoscopy average $1,500 and procedures as complex as spine surgery are priced to save AccessMedicalCard members over $10,000. Hospital prices for the same procedure are as high as $40,000.
AccessMedicalCard is the first program in the nation to offer global fee discounting of outpatient surgery for the uninsured and self-pay patient. “By negotiating discounts for surgical professional fees, anesthesiology fees and surgery center facility fees we can dramatically lower the costs of outpatient care,” says Neal Gilbert, President of Surgical Care Partners, Inc. “Approximately 90% of the surgical procedures performed in a hospital can be safely performed in an outpatient surgery center. AccessMedicalCard has further reduced the cost of healthcare by eliminating all claims processing, billing, accounts receivable management and bad debts for its providers and members.”
HealthSouth surgery centers, along with other surgery centers in the AccessMedical Provider Network, offer overnight care. Overnight care extends the range and complexity of the procedures surgery centers can offer. Hundreds, and even thousands of dollars, can be added to the savings for AccessMedicalCard members when the discounts of services, such as diagnostic imaging (X-Ray, CT and MRI) and physical therapy are included.
About AccessMedicalCard
AccessMedicalCard is a rapidly growing Bay Area PPO network of over 400 physicians and outpatient providers, dedicated to offering a web-enabled, fee-for-service discount, membership-based healthcare program for families, individuals and businesses. The physician members of the network use lower cost ancillary providers as an alternative to more costly hospital care. The AccessMedical Provider Network includes surgery centers, diagnostic imaging centers, specialty and primary care urgent care networks and centers, physical therapists, mental health providers, dentists and medical gases and DME. Headquartered in Pleasanton, California, and founded by Bay Area healthcare professionals, the Company is devoted to making affordable quality healthcare a reality for the uninsured and the self-pay patient. The AccessMedicalCard initiative provides a comprehensive outpatient program offering consumers’ quality healthcare in their community, when they need it at prices they can afford. There are no claims forms, deductibles, denials for pre-existing conditions or age based premiums. AccessMedicalCard is a provider network which has individual contracts with each of its providers. AccessMedicalCard also offers a low cost Business Program. Monthly membership costs for individuals are $25 per month and $69 per month for a family. AccessMedicalCard’s “Show Them That You Care” business program range from $14.95 to $19.95 per employee per month. For more information about AccessMedicalCard, please visit www. accessmedicalcard. com or call (925) 460-8895.
About HealthSouth
HealthSouth is the nationÂ’s largest provider of outpatient surgery, diagnostic imaging and rehabilitative healthcare services, operating nearly 1,700 facilities nationwide and abroad. HealthSouth can be found on the Web at www. healthsouth. com.
