Frequently Asked Questions

As many as 12 million patients in the U.S. are misdiagnosed every year, and as many as 29% of surgical procedures, diagnostic tests and treatment protocols are unnecessary. This can result in tremendous inconvenience, pain and suffering for the patient and, in some cases, even death. Further, these unnecessary healthcare services are costly to both the patient and provider. Obtaining a second opinion from a qualified, objective medical professional acts as a safeguard against unnecessary and incorrect treatments and helps ensure that a patient receives the appropriate medical care.

You do not have to perform any additional tests. You provide us with all the medical records related to your initial diagnosis (the first opinion), a brief medical history, and answer a questionnaire tailored to your specific medical condition/issue. Our web-based platform makes all these tasks easy to perform, and we connect you with an appropriate Physician Specialist to provide your medical second opinion.

Second Opinion Expert carefully selects its Physician Specialists based on their clinical experience, medical training, research, and publications. All of our Physician Specialists are board certified and have attending privileges at well-known medical centers, with most of them having affiliations with Cedars-Sinai, UCLA and/or USC. They each have several years of actual medical practice experience and most of them are involved in research and have many publications to their credit. A significant number of them are also involved in clinical trials for advanced pharmaceuticals, therapeutics, devices and treatment procedures. Our Physician Specialists each have a long history of providing safe and effective patient care, and they have demonstrated the ability to successfully apply their knowledge of biomedical science and clinical practice. Every physician who works with us is vetted via the National Practitioner Data Bank to guarantee their identities and credentials and ensure they have not had any issues connected to the practice of medicine. After they have cleared our vetting process, Second Opinion Expert posts all of their professional and educational information on its Website for patients to view.

A standard second opinion from one of our Physician Specialists costs $600. We also offer a Second Opinion with Video Conference for $800. The Video Conference allows you to discuss your medical condition in greater detail and to ask and answer questions from your Physician Specialist before he/she completes your Second Opinion. Although many insurers do cover our services, we recommend you contact your carrier to confirm the status of your specific policy.

Second Opinion Expert's proprietary software contacts appropriate Physician Specialists for your Second Opinion, and a qualified Physician Specialist will be assigned based on your specific Second Opinion request, your state of residence, and the availability of our Physician Specialists.

You are free to contact the physician who provided your Second Opinion and engage his/her private medical practice, but any such follow-up and/or treatment is wholly outside the scope of the Second Opinion and/or the Services provided by Second Opinion Expert.

You receive a Second Opinion Report, which contains a comprehensive summary of your health information and medical records, as well as your Physician Specialist's opinions regarding your medical condition and, as applicable, recommendations regarding potential treatments.

Second Opinion Expert complies fully with the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), the federal law that protects patients’ personal health information. Our technology platform encrypts and stores all personal health information securely while allowing our Physician Specialists to access critical information easily and quickly. For further information on how we protect your privacy, please review our Privacy Policy.

You may access all of your records that have been submitted to our system – including your health records, your health questionnaire, and your Second Opinion Report – at any time by logging in to our website.

You may request a Second Opinion for as many different medical conditions or sets of symptoms as you have.

You don’t need any special programs or software to use our Services. You do need an Internet connection (broadband works best) and an Internet web browser. Our Services support all commonly used web browsers, including Internet Explorer 9 and up and the most recent versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. In order to download the Second Opinion Report, you must have Adobe Reader 10 or higher or other commonly used PDF reader. The Video Conference feature requires you to use a computer with a webcam, microphone, and speakers.

We use the latest encryption technology to ensure that your personal health information is protected.All communications are transmitted over a secure, 256-bit encrypted SSL channel, which exceeds all federal requirements for protecting personal health information under HIPAA.Direct messages regarding your personal health information from us will always be sent to you through our secure message center, never to your personal email address.

You may contact us by email at info@nullsecondopinionexpert.com , by phone at (818) 707-1007 or by fax at (855) 633-9737.