>recently break his collarbone

>does not have insurance

Can we fix that before the next body part breaks? Shopping mall opens at 12:01am his time.

>shop around for Orthos who will allow him to set up an "out-of-pocket" payment plan

Do be aware that health care vendors are not regulated as credit-granting entities. They can, will, and routinely do offload receivables to 3rd party debt servicers/debt buyers despite timely payments from indebted health care customers made in accordance with the vendor's own payment arrangement agreement. You can include the facility where any prior medical care was delivered, as well.

tl;dr: a>$0 balance owed can wind up in collections at any time.

Also be aware that no orthopedic surgeon is going to proceed with treating an elective surgery consumer without a 3rd party payer in the mix. Cash up front and in full should yield an in-person consult exclusive of any diagnostics involving any form of imaging.