Geisinger Health System President and CEO David Feinberg, MD, said the Danville, Pa.-based health system is going to start offering a money-back guarantee to patients who receive care at its facilities, according to a Times Leader report.
Dr. Feinberg discussed the plan at the sixth annual Health Care Symposium at Misericordia University on Friday. According to Dr. Feinberg, after patients receive care at a Geisinger facility, they will be able to use a smartphone app to tell the system about their experience and then request a refund if they are unhappy with the care they received.
"The refund page knows how much you paid. There's a sliding scale. You can ask for $100 back, or $2,000 back," Dr. Feinberg said, according to the report.
The app, called Geisinger ProvenExperience, has already had a soft launch and will formally launch this week.
Dr. Feinberg said giving patients some money back is "a small token of appreciation" for providing valuable information that will help fix any issues for future patients. He compared the refund idea to purchasing a coffee at Starbucks.
"If the barista makes it for you and you sip it and you don't like it, Starbucks says we will make you a new coffee or give you your money back. I've never seen a Starbucks barista sip the coffee and say no, we made it right, you have to drink it," said Dr. Feinberg, according to the report.
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