Tendo Marketplace
The Tendo Marketplace is a nationwide healthcare marketplace and provider network that provides high quality, all-inclusive healthcare procedure bundles at affordable, predictable prices.
The Tendo Marketplace grew out of the healthcare software company Tendo’s 2023 acquisition of the MDsave healthcare network. Tendo Marketplace is accessible to patients, providers, employers, members of self-funded employer health plans, care navigators, and third-party administrators (TPAs). Patients use mdsave.com to access the network, while members of self-funded employer health plans, care navigators, and TPAs use Care Connect, a tailored solution designed for their specific healthcare needs.
How It Works
Providers and the medical procedures they perform are listed along with upfront pricing on the mdsave.com website. Providers often offer procedures on the website at a significantly lower price than in-network insurance prices. The win for them is that they get upfront payment for the procedures and Tendo Marketplace handles the administrative overhead. Providers who list procedures on the marketplace have a log-in area of the website where they can manage and redeem vouchers for procedures.
Patients can shop for procedures in two ways:
- Directly on the public-facing section of mdsave.com, which allows them to see providers, their listed procedures, and upfront pricing for the procedures. This site is for patients who have no insurance, are underinsured, or have a high deductible. They often can purchase procedures on the site at a significant savings. Some providers whose procedures are listed on mdsave.com have their registration staff create and share shopping carts for procedures with their underinsured patients. If the patient pays before the procedure, they can be given the provider’s discount.
- The other category of patients who benefit from Tendo Marketplace are those whose employer participates in Care Connect as part of their employee health plan. These companies have an on-line portal on which a care navigator can shop for procedures for employees . The users of Care Connect are employer-driven insurance providers, third party administrators (TPA), and care navigators who are shopping on behalf of employees. They receive a discount from providers for procedures. Sometimes, employers and employees each are responsible for part of the cost. Companies use Care Connect in a variety of ways. Some just give patients options. Others connect all of the dots between a primary care visit and a specialist procedure with lower pricing. Some organizations help patients with special circumstances such as an injury in a traffic accident get less expensive care. On-site employer clinics act as the navigator to help their employees get quality procedures at a lower cost for the employer.
In this diagram, Tendo Marketplace at the top is the on-line network that lists providers and procedures on mdsave.com. These listings are made available both on the consumer-facing MDsave section of the website, and on the log-in only Care Connect section for employers.
Care Connect patients will encounter the MDsave brand during their purchase journey, and it is referenced on vouchers for their procedures and perhaps mentioned by their provider’s staff. Care Connect vouchers are good wherever MDsave vouchers are accepted, and patients redeem both the same way at their procedure appointment. Transactional materials including the vouchers have both Care Connect and MDsave branding.
There can be a difference between estimated prices on Care Connect and those on mdsave.com. This is because the estimated prices on Care Connect are intended to show typical payments by commercial insurance providers for a procedure. The estimates on mdsave incorporate self and cash pay prices in addition to contracted commercial rates in order to reflect typical payments by cash pay consumers purchasing a procedure.
Get to Know Your Account Manager
Providers work with account managers who help them create and list procedure bundles that patients and care navigators shop for, and train providers and their staff to use the marketplace. When there are no providers for a particular type of imaging listed on Tendo Marketplace in a particular location, they work to add a hospital that does that procedure in that location.
Employers work with an account manager who helps them make Care Connect work better for them, helps them grow their relationship with Tendo Marketplace, and provides them regular updates on the results of their use of Care Connect.