Careington International brings a significant competitive advantage to clients through the personalized, concierge service with which they administer their physician discount program.

Members of Careington's Physician discount program receive an identification card and "Dear Doctor" letter in their fulfillment kit with instructions to call Careington's Physician Relations Department where a live operator will provide them with a list of providers, verify participation of those providers, and schedule an appointment for the member.

The Careington PRS will also instruct the provider to contact Careington at the time of checkout and give the CPT codes for the services rendered. Careington will then communicate to the provider the PHCS allowable amount and instruct the provider to collect this entire amount. This may be done via phone, fax, email, or regular mail. The live operator feature with the PHCS option ensures that the member's experience is a positive one with very little room for error or confusion on either the member's or the doctor's part at the time of service.

With other partners who provide physician discounts, it is the member's responsibility to make an appointment with a participating physician and identify himself as a member by showing his card at the time of service. The physician will call the phone number on the card to access the call center with repricing information. Potential drawbacks to this plan lie in the fact that the member doesn't have a live Careington operator to help ensure that the doctor is participating and understands how to process the discounts, or is aware of how the plan works, and will charge correctly. Instead, he makes his own appointment, and if he doesn't have his card, the doctor will not be able to give him his discounts.