System and method for matching healthcare providers with consumers

A method for using a system comprising computer equipment for matching healthcare consumers to healthcare producers comprising the steps of:

• providing a producer interface to the system for each of a plurality of healthcare producers to interact with the system over the Internet;
• providing a consumer interface to the system for allowing a consumer to interact with the system over the internet;
• maintaining, on the system, a quality assessment of a plurality of said plurality of producers;
• accepting, via the producer interface, one or more available products and/or available services listings for each of the plurality of healthcare producers;
• accepting, via the consumer interface, a request from the consumer regarding a desired healthcare product or service;
• searching, using the system, the plurality of products and/or services listed by the plurality of producers for a subset of the products and/or services that are a close match to the requested desired healthcare product or service;
• providing a list of one or more items of said subset of products and/or services for display to the consumer;
• providing, when available, the quality assessment associated with each producer corresponding to each one of said one or more items for display to the consumer;
• offering said items on said list of items for purchase by the consumer;
• and
• for each item purchased by the consumer, performing the steps of:
• accepting payment, using the system, from the consumer for the purchased item(s),
• after the product(s) or service(s) have been provided by the producer(s) corresponding to the item(s) purchased, providing, using the system, a portion of said payment to the corresponding producer(s),
• requesting, using the system, quality information from the consumer about each of the purchased items,
• determining, using said quality information, a quality assessment of the producers that provided the purchased items based on said quality information;
• updating, using the system and using the quality information, a quality parameter for each of the producers for which the consumer provided corresponding product or service quality information such that said quality assessment allows the healthcare consumers to compare the quality of the producers against each other, and
• providing, using the system, a remaining portion of said payment, if any, to a representative of the system.

A system for matching healthcare consumers to healthcare producers, said system comprising:

• computer hardware resources;
• a web server using at least a portion of said computer hardware resources;
• a database using at least a portion of said computer hardware resources;
• a producer subsystem using at least a portion of said computer hardware resources and utilizing said web server and database for providing a producer interface for each of a plurality of healthcare producers using producer computers to interact with the system over the Internet, wherein said producer subsystem accepts from the producer computer(s), utilizing the web server and database, one or more available products and/or available services listings from each of the plurality of healthcare producers for storing in the database;
• a consumer subsystem using at least a portion of said computer hardware resources and utilizing said web server and database for providing a consumer interface to the system for each of a plurality of healthcare consumers using computers to interact with the system over the internet, wherein said consumer subsystem accepts from at least one consumer computer, utilizing the web server and database, a request from one consumer regarding desired healthcare product or service, wherein
• at least a portion of said computer resources and information stored in the database are used for searching the plurality of products and/or services listed by the plurality of producers for a subset of said product(s) and/or service(s) that are a close match to the requested desired healthcare product or service, and wherein
• said consumer subsystem is adapted for utilizing said web server and database for providing a list of one or more items of said subset of products and/or services along with standardized quality assessments of each of the producers providing the items on the list of items for display to the one consumer on the one user computer for offering said items on said list of items for purchase by the one consumer;
• and further wherein
• when said system receives an indication from the user computer that one or more of the offered items is accepted for purchase by the one consumer, said system is further adapted for using at least a portion of said computer hardware resources executing software for performing the steps of:
• accepting payment information from the one consumer computer for the one or more purchased items,
• calculating a portion of said payment for providing to the producer(s) corresponding to the purchased product(s) and/or service(s),
• requesting and receiving, from the one consumer using the consumer interface, quality information about each one of the purchased one or more items, calculating a remaining portion of said payment, if any, for providing to a representative of the system, and
• using said information provided by the one consumer for calculating an updated standardized quality assessment for the producer(s) of the one or more purchased items.