Demetrio Aguila, MD, has a novel solution to healthcare affordability: allowing patients to pay for surgical procedures through volunteer work.
Five insights from Amo Mama:
1. Dr. Aguila, a Nebraska-based nerve specialist, partnered with charitable organizations to launch the M25 Program in 2019.
2. Free from the constraints of commercial payer contracts, M25 can provide creative, transparent pricing structures to help patients who otherwise couldn't afford surgery.
3. Patients know before surgery how many hours of volunteering the procedure will cost, and they're allowed to enlist others to help complete their service hours.
4. The bill for M25's first patient was 560 service hours, but students from the Omaha-based University of Nebraska Medical Center helped complete the hours.
5. Along with community service, Dr. Aguila accepts payments in the form of monetary installments or lump sums.