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New Web Site Offers To Auction Off Operations

The field of medicine is getting more high-tech every day.

On Tuesday, a new Web site popped up -- one where you actually bid for surgery online.

Medicine Online.com is the only Web site of its kind: an auction house for surgery.

In Dimension, we look at the bidding process and the controversy surrounding it.

MINNEAPOLIS, Posted 10:00 p.m. February 1, 2000 -- It just takes a click, and you can buy airline tickets, clothing and now plastic surgery.

Medicine Online is the newest auction Web site.

But, unlike eBay, which auctions off products, California-based Medicine Online auctions off cosmetic surgery.

"It kind of reduces an elective medical service to a bidding war," said Dr. Martin Adson, a plastic surgeon.

"We are not going and putting a heart double bypass online here," Kevin Moshayedi, Medicine Online's CEO, said. "These are strictly elective surgeries."

Surgeries that are offered include nose jobs, face lifts, laser correction, cosmetic dentistry and even foot surgery.

"It's a genuine reverse auction," Moshayedi said. "Consumers request a product and providers post a price."

Here's how it works: You log on to Medicine Online.com and submit a form requesting a specific operation. Surgeons then have 72 hours to respond with a price. The bidding is anonymous.

After choosing what you want, you can search the site and read about possible complications, and even get tips on what to look for in a surgeon.

Once you get your bids, you must meet face-to-face with the physician before the deal is a go.

But even that's not enough for critics.

"There are better ways to find your surgeon than paying attention to the deepest discount," medical ethicist Jeffrey Kahn said.

Kahn said he fears that the best deal could be the most damaging.

"You already hear about women who go for breast augmentation surgery that are scarred, because the surgeon who offers the best price isn't very good at that surgery," Kahn said. "It's disfiguring."

"Do you want to go to the cheapest person in town to have your plastic surgery? This is your face, your body," Adson said. "You want to necessarily shop for the blue-light special?"

But some people to whom Dimension talked would consider it.

"I'm into negotiating the best price," Sandy Spahr said. She supports the site's idea and says she would bid on a procedure.

Others said they aren't so quick to sell themselves to the lowest bidder.

"I'd be kind of nervous," Leyna Hoffer said. "I don't think the Internet is the place to find someone that is going to cut into me."

But it is the place to find physicians cutting into prices, and the bidding is now open.

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