Healthsouk

Last updated
HealthSouk
Type of site
Technology
Headquarters Mountain View, California, United States
Key people Neilesh Patel DDS [1] (CEO, co-founder),
URL www.healthsouk.com

HealthSouk is the United States' first health plan without monthly fees. [2] It is a real-time pricing model for health services where fees update every 60 seconds. It allows medical providers to list their prices for different procedures as well as available appointment times.

Contents

Business model

Unlike discount plans or medical insurance, the patient does not pay any upfront cost to participate. In addition, the healthcare provider is never charged a monthly fee.

Company history

HealthSouk was founded as The Smart Alternative to Dental Insurance and also trademarked as The Smart Dental Insurance Alternative. Both have been actively used by HealthSouk in commerce since its founding in 2011. In 2011, Dr. Neilesh Patel founded Healthsouk in Mountain View, California. He is credited as being the inventor of real-time pricing model of health services. Before starting HealthSouk, Dr. Patel founded Healthcare Volunteer. The first market for HealthSouk was Las Vegas, followed by Los Angeles, Orange County, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Patel started HealthSouk after seeing Las Vegas patients struggle to access basic and cosmetic dental care during the aftermath of the U.S. housing crisis and stock market crash. The name HealthSouk was named when Patel was visiting the souks (or marketplaces) of Morocco. [3]

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Neilesh Patel is a social entrepreneur and American humanitarian who serves as Founder and CEO of HealthCare Volunteer, an online global health non-profit organization, and Healthsouk, a dental insurance alternative with no monthly fee. Patel won the 2013 Jefferson Awards for Public Service for Greatest Public Service by an Individual Under Age 35 in June 2013 for his service in facilitating healthcare to over 1 million people worldwide. The Jefferson Award's previous winners include Steve Jobs, Bobby Jindal, Peyton Manning and Lance Armstrong. He is also credited with starting Healthsouk, America's first free dental plan and is credited with being the inventor of real-time pricing for health services. He launched it in 2011 in response to the lack to dental coverage provided in the Affordable Care Act. Other companies were forced to follow suit on creating a free dental plan after HealthSouk started to disrupt the dental discount plan subscription model.

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References

  1. August 26, Kathryn Mayer; Benefitspro.Com, 2011 at 08:08 AM | Originally published on. "First free discount health plan launches". Benefitspro.com.
  2. "Worcester Telegram & Gazette". Archived from the original on 2012-04-05. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  3. "Backed By Twilio, SV Angel & 500 Startups, HealthSouk Brings Affordable Dental Care To California". Social.techcrunch.com.