The health care safety net has holes. We help people find health care they can afford, step by step.
About 27.1 million Americans have no health insurance. Millions more have insurance they cannot afford to use. Many of them qualify for help they have never heard of, like Medicaid or a clinic that charges based on income. Our free tools show each person where they fit, and when nothing else fits, our directory helps them find an affordable doctor near them.
Find your way to care you can afford
Get covered
Step 1. See if you qualify
See if you can get Medicaid, CHIP or help paying for a Marketplace plan. Apply once, and you are checked for all of them.
Already on Medicaid? Keep your address up to date with your state. If it mails you a renewal form, fill it out and send it back by the date on the form, so you keep your coverage.
Check Medicaid and coverage helpStep 2. Compare your plan choices
Compare a regular plan with a lower-cost plan paired with direct primary care, for a job plan or a Marketplace plan.
Compare plan costs
Everyday care now
Step 3. Everyday care near you
Checkups, ongoing conditions and sick visits. Community health centers serve everyone and charge by income. Free clinics see many people at no cost.
Find a health center near youStep 4. Find an affordable doctor
If no health center fits, find a cash-pay primary care doctor near you. A cash-pay doctor is not insurance.
Find an affordable doctor
Tests, scans and hospital care
Step 5. Lower your hospital costs
Ask the hospital for financial help first, know your rights when you pay cash, and see what hospitals near you charge.
Get help with hospital bills
Also here for you:
Helping a client or a family member? See how navigators use these tools.
Funders and partners: see how it works.
Already know you want a cash-pay doctor? Search our directory.
- More than10,000
- uninsured and underinsured patients connected to a cash-pay physician since 2020
- 10
- free tools: a Medicaid and coverage check, a health center finder, a plan cost comparison and 7 price finders
- $149
- It costs us $149 per patient connected
- About20,000
- cash-pay doctors listed in all 50 states plus DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands
Recognition
Before the Foundation existed, the FindMyDirectDoctor directory and the work behind it earned these honors.
Business Innovation Merit Award
2025 To The Stars: Kansas Business Awards, Kansas Department of Commerce, with a certificate signed by Governor Laura Kelly
Kansas State University Accelerator Program
Top three of several hundred applicants
KITE Proof of Concept award
Kansas Department of Commerce, fiscal year 2023 (the state's budget year). KITE stands for Kansas Innovation & Technology Enterprises. A proof of concept award helps test whether a new idea can work.
Our mission
Our mission is to radically improve health care access for uninsured and underinsured people across the United States through one comprehensive navigation platform.
The platform is built by physician-scientists in clinical outcomes research, working with a team of engineers with decades of combined experience.
Healthcare access means you can see a doctor when you need one, at a price you can pay. Uninsured means you have no health insurance. Underinsured means you have insurance, but it costs too much to use when you get sick. We help in three ways, and all of them are free. First, we teach. Our guides and price library explain in plain words what help exists, what care costs and how to pay less, and they show up when people search online. Second, our tools help people check what they qualify for: Medicaid, a community health center that charges by income, help paying for a Marketplace plan, or a better plan choice. Third, when nothing else fits, our directory of about 20,000 cash-pay doctors helps people find an affordable doctor near them. You do not need to sign up for any of it.
Start here
- Medicaid and coverage checkSee if you can get Medicaid, CHIP or help paying for a Marketplace plan.
- Health center finderFind a nearby health center and see if you may pay less based on your income.
- Plan cost comparisonCompare a regular plan with a lower-cost plan paired with direct primary care, for a job plan or a Marketplace plan.Compare plan costsUse your own plan's numbers
- Hospital cash pricesSee the cash prices hospitals in all 50 states and DC post for common tests and visits. Before the test, or before you pay, ask the hospital if it can lower or forgive your bill.
- Read a free guideLearn how to get care with no insurance, how Medicaid works and how to pay less.
- Find an affordable doctorIf no health center fits, find a cash-pay primary care doctor near you. A cash-pay doctor is not insurance.
Where the safety net misses people
Medicare covers older adults. Medicaid covers many people with low incomes. Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), also called community health centers, care for many more. These are clinics that get federal funding to serve people in need. They adjust their fees based on income and family size. But these programs cannot reach everyone.
About 27.1 million Americans have no health insurance at all. Among adults aged 19 to 64, 44% are inadequately insured. That means they have no coverage, went without it during the year, or have costs or deductibles that are high compared with their income. A deductible is the amount you pay yourself before your insurance starts to pay. The average deductible on a Marketplace plan (a health plan people buy through HealthCare.gov or their state's marketplace) hit a record $3,786 in 2026.
There is another gap that few people talk about. Help often exists, but people do not know it is there or which kind fits them. Many people who qualify for Medicaid never apply. Many do not know a community health center nearby will charge them less. And about two out of three adults say they are not familiar with direct primary care, a way to see a regular doctor for a flat monthly fee.
When people cannot find a doctor they can afford, small problems wait. High blood pressure goes untreated. An infection gets worse. Too often, the first doctor they see works in an emergency room. People stay healthy when small problems are caught early, and that is much harder without a regular doctor.
How we help: learn, find where you fit, get care.
Our work starts with teaching, because people cannot use help they have never heard of. Then our free tools show each person where they fit, so they can get care.
Here is how it works.
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Learn [Awareness]
Most people never hear about the help they qualify for, so we start by teaching. We write plain-language guides in English and Spanish that show up when people search online for help with the cost of care. We publish what hospitals charge people who pay cash, so people can see prices before they go. We also reach people through navigators, community groups and outreach in their communities.
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Find where you fit [Navigation]
Our free tools ask a few simple questions. Then they show people the right next step. That could be Medicaid, a community health center, help paying for a Marketplace plan, or a plan that costs less. When nothing else fits, our directory of about 20,000 cash-pay doctors, the largest of its kind in the country, helps people find one near home.
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Get regular care [Healthy]
A regular doctor can catch small problems early, before they turn into an emergency. That helps people stay healthy and leads to better health outcomes, which means better health over time.
We are not a medical provider and we do not offer medical advice. In an emergency, call 911.
Built for patients, and for the people who help them
Patients and families
Anyone can use our tools on a phone or computer, for free, without signing up. A parent can check whether their children may qualify for Medicaid or CHIP, find a health center near home that charges by income, and see what a hospital charges for a test before they go.
Navigators, case managers and social workers
The people who help families through hard times usually juggle many phone calls and many websites to find the right option. Our platform puts the main options in one place. With a few facts from the family, such as their state, household size and income, a navigator can check Medicaid, find nearby health centers, compare plan costs, look up hospital cash prices and, when nothing else fits, find an affordable doctor. Nothing typed into the tools is saved. Navigators can walk a client through one short questionnaire and print the plan.
Community partners
We work with foundations, health centers and community groups to adapt our tools or build new ones for the people they serve, such as a screener in Spanish or a tool for a specific county. Partners tell us where people get stuck, and we build to fit.
Low cost per person, and how we count it
Since 2020, the directory has connected more than 10,000 uninsured and underinsured patients to a cash-pay physician. It costs us $149 per patient connected. For comparison, the federal Navigator program, which helps people sign up for health insurance, spent $1,061 per enrollment for coverage in 2024. The two programs do different jobs, so this is a rough comparison, not a head-to-head test.
An average emergency room visit cost about $2,863 in 2026, across all types of insurance. A cash-pay doctor visit usually costs $40 to $300. Our cost model estimates that each connected patient avoids $157 to $309 in costs per year. That figure is modeled, not measured. Our Impact page explains what it means, and funders can request the full report.
Saving money is only part of the point. The work is for people's health. A regular doctor they can afford helps uninsured and underinsured people stay healthy. We do not track the health of individual patients, so we do not claim measured health results.
Why a doctor started a free health care navigation platform
Harsha Moole, MD, is an internal medicine physician-scientist. In his work caring for patients in the hospital, he kept admitting the same kind of patient.
Picture a 34-year-old man with high blood pressure. He has no insurance, so he never sees a doctor. Low-cost daily medicine could have kept his blood pressure under control. Instead, he arrives at the hospital with a stroke.
He is not one real person. He is a mix of many patients Harsha has treated, with details changed to protect their privacy.
In 2020, Harsha started the FindMyDirectDoctor directory to help people like him find an affordable doctor before a crisis. He paid for it himself. His wife, Christina Delgado, has been the backbone of the work from the start. The directory has connected more than 10,000 uninsured and underinsured patients to a cash-pay physician, and as a researcher, Harsha watched the results closely. In time, the work grew beyond what one family could pay for. So in 2026, he formed FindMyDirectDoctor Foundation to grow with outside support. Our goal is to reach millions of patients, not just thousands.
As the directory grew, we saw that a cash-pay doctor was often not the first thing people needed. Many qualified for Medicaid or a community health center and did not know it. So in 2026 we built free tools that help each person find the right kind of care first, with the directory as the backstop.
Who runs the Foundation
Two of our three directors are independent physicians. No director or officer is paid.
Meet the teamOur key documents, in one place
- Our IRS letter confirming that we are a 501(c)(3) public charity, dated September 23, 2026. A 501(c)(3) public charity is a nonprofit the IRS recognizes as a charity under that section of the tax law.PDF
- Our conflict of interest policy, which explains how we handle decisions where a director has a personal interestPDF
- A plain explanation of how we license our directory technology
- Our 2027 budget: about 82.7% program, 5.3% fundraising and 12.0% management and general
Why funders support this work
Counties and states
We work with counties and states that want better access to affordable care for uninsured, underinsured and underserved people. Underserved people live where doctors are few, far away or hard to afford. We plan awareness, outreach, tool and directory work for your area and report back on what we can measure. Our tools help people in your area check Medicaid and find community health centers first, so public programs reach the people they are meant for. When nothing fits, our directory helps them find an affordable doctor. The goal is for more people to have a regular doctor, stay healthy and have better health outcomes. The directory already covers all 50 states, so work can start anywhere. Ten states, including Texas, Florida and Kansas, have not expanded Medicaid. That means those states have not opened their Medicaid programs to more adults with low incomes.
Talk with usFederal programs
We reach people who coverage programs miss, at a low cost per person. It costs us $149 per patient connected, compared with $1,061 per enrollment in the federal Navigator program for coverage in 2024. When we report to a federal program, we show the size of the need in the areas we serve, what we did, how many people we reached and connected, what it cost per person, and the results we could measure.
Talk with usHospitals
We help uninsured and underinsured people near your hospital find an affordable regular doctor. Our free tools help patients check Medicaid, and our guides explain how to ask a hospital for financial help. People without a regular doctor often use the ER as their doctor's office. Much of that care goes unpaid, and the hospital absorbs the cost. This is called uncompensated care, which means care a hospital provides but is never paid for. Hospital margins, the money left after costs, are already thin. A regular doctor can help these patients stay healthier and avoid unnecessary ER visits. That can help your hospital lose less money on care that could have happened in a doctor's office.
Talk with usFoundations and health plans
You want results you can measure, a low cost per person and an organization you can trust. FindMyDirectDoctor Foundation counts every patient connection it can see and explains how on our Impact page. It costs us $149 per patient connected. We can adapt our free tools or build new ones with your grantees, for example a Medicaid screener in Spanish or a renewal reminder, at no cost to them. If you run a health plan, members with high deductibles sometimes put off care because of the cost. An affordable regular doctor can help those members get everyday care and stay healthier. Our Foundation has a three-person board, and two of the three directors are independent physicians. No director or officer is paid.
Talk with usIndividuals and physicians
Our founder, Harsha Moole, MD, is a doctor and medical researcher who built this directory with his own money starting in 2020. He takes no salary. Most of our budget goes straight to the program.
Talk with usLet's talk
Do you work on health access or the cost of care for a county, a state, a hospital or a foundation? Do you want to partner with us? We would like to hear from you.
Talk with us