Barnes & Noble vs.Amazon. How healthcare is learning from the publishing business.

I love Barnes & Noble.

I buy my books at Barnes & Noble stores. Yesterday I purchased Jab-Jab-Jab-Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk, for $29.99 plus applicable taxes.  This morning I looked on Amazon for the same book and it was $17.99 including shipping costs. (w/prime membership).  

If I made the purchase on Amazon vs Barnes & Noble, then I would have had an additional $12 in my pocket.

• In any town USA at Hospital-Alpha a common orthopedic procedure such as a total knee replacement is performed for an all-in price of $107,000. 
• At Hospital-Bravo on the next block over from Hospital-Alpha a total knee replacement is performed for an all-in price of $27,900. 

If I choose Hospital-Bravo, will my insurance company or self insured employer write me a check for $79,100?

Is it reasonable to expect payment, discount on premiums, or a thank you from your employer or health insurance company for choosing the lower cost option?While it is not yet commonplace, self-funded employers are beginning to incentivize, rebate, and pay employees to shop high quality lower cost healthcare.   

The results of incentivizing, rebating, and/or paying employees to shop for high quality lower costs healthcare is a reduction in the costs of healthcare.  Furthermore,  it increases the quality of healthcare, especially at hospitals and it rewards the highest quality, best priced, and most efficient surgical facilities and surgeons. 

I have the choice between shopping at Barnes & Noble and Amazon. When I shop at Amazon the money I save goes directly in my pocket.  Shouldn’t shopping for healthcare have the same results?

Notes:

• The publishing industry is a 38 billion dollar marketplace.
• The US non-emergency surgery spend is an estimated 600 billion dollar per year.
• In the last 12 months the US healthcare spend was 65 billion dollars on 810,000 total knee replacements.

About the Author: Dutch Rojas believes healthcare should be affordable and accessible to all.  He is the founder of SanoSurgery and leads an ever growing company of professionals who believe that the US can attract 80% of the world's surgery case volume and that 100K is not a reasonable price for total joint procedure.