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Dr. Eric Inman and Jeff Williams, WellBridge Surgical
One would never suspect just how revolutionary WellBridge Surgical is by looking at its innocuous Zionsville headquarters. The real action is on its website, where it posts to-the-dollar prices for everything from ACL repair ($11,920) to gallbladder removal ($9,975). The facility can perform about 250 kinds of outpatient surgery. And unlike most other medical facilities, where finding out the price of a procedure can be extremely difficult, its fees are posted as plainly as those on a restaurant menu.
The idea came about when anesthesiologist Dr. Eric Inman and his lifelong friend, businessman Jeff Williams, were talking about ballooning health insurance costs for Williams’ company.
“We started a conversation about becoming part of the solution to lowering health care costs in Indiana,” Williams said.
WellBridge’s clientele is composed primarily of companies with self-funded employee health insurance programs. Their interest in WellBridge’s offerings is easy to understand, given that the firm estimates its services cost between half and a third of what conventional medical institutions charge. They also have off-the-street customers who simply need a particular form of surgery and heard about WellBridge’s prices.
“They are literally walking in our door,” Williams said. “We have a lot of cash payers, and they pay the day before surgery. It’s very, very simple—just the way you would buy or consume anything else … . Here’s the menu, this is what I need, and here’s what I’m going to pay for that.”
WellBridge’s facility includes four operating rooms and 13 medical and three non-medical employees. The specialized physicians needed for the surgery typically have privileges with local hospitals but aren’t formerly employed by them.
Inman put together the company’s pricing list, correlating myriad costs such as surgical supplies, the surgeon’s fee, surgical suite rental, etc. Today, he can calculate such prices using an Excel spreadsheet.
“It seems pretty simple, but if you go to a hospital and ask them, you could talk to them for an hour and still have no idea how to do it,” Inman said.
WellBridge confines its offerings to outpatient procedures. Brain and spine work, transplants and anything else requiring post-operative intensive care are (literally) not on the menu. In 2023, the company produced $5 million in revenue and performed some 1,500 procedures. And this, if Inman and Williams have their way, is only the beginning.
“Our goal is to put up more than one of these,” Williams said. “We definitely plan on putting up as many as necessary across the country.”•
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