Determining expected cost for a medical visit

1 . A method for automatically determining the expected cost for a medical visit comprising:

entering patient identification information;

accessing said patient's medical record;

entering a reason for said patient's visit;

identifying said patient's health-care plan; and

calculating an expected cost for said medical visit.

2 . A method as in claim 1 wherein said expected cost is an amount to be paid by said patient.

3 . A method as in claim 1 wherein said expected cost is an amount to be paid by said health-care plan to a medical services provider.

4 . A method as in claim 1 comprising the additional step of:

verifying said patient's identification information.

5 . A method as in claim 1 comprising the additional step of:

verifying said patient is enrolled in said health-care plan.

6 . A method as in claim 1 comprising the additional step of:

updating said patient's medical record.

7 . A method as in claim 1 comprising the additional step of:

updating said patient's medical record.

8 . A method as in claim 1 wherein said patient's preferred pharmacy is in said patient's medical record.

9 . A system for estimating a cost for a medical visit comprising:

entering patient identification information on a local or remote server;

accessing said patient's medical record on a local, remote, or web server;

entering a reason for said patient's visit;

identifying said patient's health-care plan on a local, remote, or web server; and

calculating an expected cost for said medical visit.