CPAPtalk.com

[quote="Bingo"]....

By NO means is an insurance company "paying for nothing". It's the difference between a visit to a stockbrokers office and getting a consult on your investment portfolio and doing an online trade with E-Trade. Will actual PRODUCT be the same - yes. Will the purchase be totally different - absolutely.

Bingo

snork1 wrote:

Bingo wrote:....

By NO means is an insurance company "paying for nothing". It's the difference between a visit to a stockbrokers office and getting a consult on your investment portfolio and doing an online trade with E-Trade. Will actual PRODUCT be the same - yes. Will the purchase be totally different - absolutely.

Bingo
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This is crap.
I get poorer and LESS service from my local DME than when I buy through a reputable dealer on-line. The only reason I go through my local DME is because they are covered by my insurance.
I just switched jobs and insurance, and with my new much higher deductible, it will no longer be worthwhile to go through the local DME for most things. So this blatant price fixing trend is really irksome. Remember the good ole days when capitalism was REALLY a "free market" driven system?
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And is it fair to broadly catagorize an entire system based on the one dealer you dealt with? Of course not.

Are there going to be terrible providers out there? Absolutely. Just like there are terrible business in any catagory.

I have had nothing but miserable experience with my local Home Depot over the past month while I've been doing some major construction work at my home. Does this mean all Hardware Stores are "crap"? Of course not.
Heck, it doesn't even mean all Home Depot locations are going to provide the same experience.

Additionally, there is this:
I just switched jobs and insurance, and with my new much higher deductible, it will no longer be worthwhile to go through the local DME for most things. So this blatant price fixing trend is really irksome.

The starter of this thread was stating that the manufacturers are raising the prices that internet dealers will be charging. This has nothing to do with the Equipment Providers and it is catagorically unfair to label them as having anything to do with it.

Bingo

Bingo,

You have a good understanding of how the system works.

For the person that now has a high deductible, that's because of your insurance company. People should be outraged at how insurance companies keep demanding more money and in turn decrease benefits. I'm really surprised it isn't a hot political debate.

And yes, it is Resmed that is starting the Internet policy. As consumers, it's not really good for us but from a business perspective I understand it. From a DME perspective, I don't really care what Internet companies charge. DMEs just want the opportunity to compete and they can't unless Resmed lowers the price of cost of goods to DMEs. That is really why Resmed is creating this policy. They don't want to lower their cost to DME companies.

well, if resmed wants to be so friggin greedy then let them, i'll spend my money elsewhere, and once all the companies follow suit i still won't purchase anything resmed as they are the ones who started this fiasco. so now they have lost a perspective customer for life.

dme guy--

i also would like to know as many specifics as you can give us about at least one manufacturer raising prices to deal with retail dme vs. internet price differences. it could affect a lot of us who think we are only dealing with the status quo in deciding how/when we are going to get our next xpap machine within the next few months.

thanks.

caroline

[quote="DME_Guy"]
For the person that now has a high deductible, that's because of your insurance company. People should be outraged at how insurance companies keep demanding more money and in turn decrease benefits. I'm really surprised it isn't a hot political debate.