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Nordstrom Health Care Case Study

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I feel that Doren’s recommendation of purchasing health care by similar means as to how we buy goods and service is an interesting one. I feel that the majority of Americans don’t know how to even begin to do such a thing. It’s difficult enough as it is just finding a Doctor you are comfortable with. If I compare purchasing Health care as to how I purchase goods and other services, I don’t always take price into account. For Example; if I like a shirt that both Macy’s and Nordstrom has, but I had a bad experience at Macy’s I will choose to purchase the shirt at Nordstrom’s even if the shirt cost more. Another example, but more along the lines of health care; I will shop around for doctors when I require certain services, however I tend to …show more content…

By going to an in network physician I am eligible to receive my insurance company discount which will help to reduce my overall out of pocket cost for any services that are provided. This is particularly important to me for the plan that I have is a HDHP, which stands for high deductible health plan. This year’s minimum deductible for single person is $1,300. Which is the amount that I have to pay out of my pocket before my plan will begin to pay. However, my out of pocket cost don’t stop there. Once I meet my annual deductible of $1,300, I am still required to pay 10% of all cost. So it’s important to me to maximize every health care dollar that I spend. In fact, I am seeing more and more employer sponsored health plans move away from HMO and PPO based plans to HDHP/ CDHP plans. This was particularly prevalent in 2014 and 2015. Per article in Health Day, “More employers moving to high-deductible health plans and consumer cost-sharing is also like to increase by 5 percent in 2015.” The thought is that health-plan participants will become better health care consumers. In actually this is not happening, for consumers are choosing to forgo necessary care because of the cost …show more content…

As a health plan participant of a HDHP/CDHP plan I can attest to avoiding care all together, for I would just get through my health care issue on my own vs. going to the doctor for care. I know enough that I can call and negotiate some of the cost of care like I have done with my dental care especially when I needed an implant. I shopped around and attempted to negotiate cash prices vs. insurance prices or credit card prices. Some Dental office would agree to take less, while others would not budge. How do you negotiate price for the Emergency room for what should one do to negotiate cost with needing to go to the emergency room? Are we as consumers going to sit around and diagnoses our symptoms via an on line tool such as with Web MD and then shop the local ER’s for the best prices to treat the condition or are we just going to go the nearest ER. When it comes to life saving treatment can we really put a price tag on health care? I understand that there are benefits to negotiating pricing with one’s doctors and being good stewards of our insurance company’s dollars, but why should we have to? Isn’t that why I go to an in network doctor for my third party payer should have pre-negotiated prices that I

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