Patent ID: 8606598

Claim:
A method for referring patients to practitioners to perform a procedure, the method comprising: maintaining a referral directory comprising data stored on a computer system, the referral directory data including contact information for practitioners and information that the practitioners are certified to perform the procedure, the data further comprising information for sorting the practitioners prioritized into a plurality of tiers based at least in part on expressed desire of each of a plurality of the practitioners to perform the procedure at one of: (1) an increased rate relative to a current rate for the practitioner, (2) the current rate, and (3) at a decreased rate relative to the current rate; electronically receiving inquiries from prospective patients regarding the procedure; and electronically transmitting a referral to individual patients, in response to their requests, to practitioners within the patient's geographic area, wherein practitioners are selected from the referral directory and sorted by the computer system such that the transmitted referral gives relative preference to at least one of the practitioners having expressed desire to perform the procedure at an increased rate relative to the current rate for the practitioner.