The doctor of the future will see you in person or by web cam, communicate directly or via e-mail, schedule appointements online, and will only take cash.

This is the vision proposed in a recent article in Fast Company, “The Doctor of the Future.”

This article profiles a new medical portal Myca  and a new health service, Hello Health  that runs on it. Essentially, Hello Health is a web storefront and social networking site focused on health care. The thing that makes this so interesting from a cash-pay perspective is the business model. Hello Health takes only cash, you have to subscribe to the service for $35 per month and pay for visits and other services as needed. Hello Health does not bill or take insurance claims. The subscriber can elect to submit receipts to their insurance if that insurance allows out-of-plan physician visits.

The other end of this cash pay system is about knowing how much the subscriber should pay for other services, even services not offered by Hello Health. Hello Health will provide the subscriber with information on how much should be spent on a given service and recommend providers in the area.

This is evidence that the health care market is changing. Providers will be competing on a more level field where patients armed with information about the market will be making more informed decisions. These patients will be supported by medical groups and physicians that understand the needs of patients who are managing their own health care dollar. The doctor of the future will be online and ready to provide patients with recommendations for their health care and their spending for health care.

There are two major trends gaining traction in health care, one negative and one positive. Let’s start with the negative. There are an increasing number of people with access to care. Before the recession started there were 40 – 50 million people in the United States without insurance. The recession has lead to another than 4 million people losing their health insurance. According to the Center for American Progress, 14,000 people lose health coverage every day. Unless there is major health care reform, this trend will continue even after the economy recovers as the cost of health care continues to outpace inflation.

Fortunately, there is a positive, market-drive trend. Healthcare is slowing but surely becoming more retail which is giving more people access to care. Retail clinics have raised a substantial amount of health care venture money in the last several years and they are growing in popularity. Quick Health has opened several retail clinics inside pharmacies around the San Francisco Bay area. I’ve visited most of them and found them to be busy and serving an unmet need. Many of them offer service in Spanish and English to patients that do not have insurance. Minute Clinic and RediClinic are other popular retail clinics in other parts of the country.

People like retail clinics because they make health care more transparent and are customer focused. They can see the prices before they receive treatment and they can receive treatment with or without health insurance. In addition, retail clinics are convenient. You can just show up to a pharmacy that has a retail clinic and signup to see a doctor or nurse practitioner. There usually isn’t a long wait and even if there is a line you can shop for other things while you are waiting.

Like retail clinics, HealDeal is making health care more retail oriented. By visiting HealDeal, patients or consumers can see the cost for treatment without any commitment to purchase. Furthermore, the customer does not need insurance to access this service. People or consumers want value in healthcare like they find in any other industry (particularly those without insurance) and retail oriented approaches are starting to give consumer the tools they need to make value assessments.