I have a whole chapter in the book about jargon and plain language and how hard it is for consumers to understand the system. I interviewed a nurse who described her own process of signing up for a private, supplemental Medicare plan. She admitted that she found it really confusing. So if the experts and the insiders find it hard to decipher and hard to anticipate or calculate their financial exposure, how could the average consumer possibly be equipped to make informed decisions?
That is crushing amounts of complexity and jargon. Millennials especially have grown up in an age of consumer-grade digital experiences. They cannot understand why healthcare would be different. We spoke with a graduate student who talked about expecting that his digital experience with health insurance would be like his digital experience anywhere else. In most digital experiences, the company knows something about you. You probably would like A or B or C because of who you are.
What our young consumers in particular found when they were looking for insurance guidance was there really was no guidance or no embedded support. We know that a lot of good digital experience now is targeted and tailored and somewhat customized to a consumer segment. And that needs to find its way to healthcare. I think that many of us feel helpless right now and overwhelmed.
And I think that reclaiming power in this context, in this moment involves a range of things. The best thing we can do for the system and for ourselves and our families is to not get sick.
They want more choices. Relationships, self-directed analysis tools, and quality service are the keys to influencing their decisions. The unfit and happy are self-directed when it comes to finances but are overconfident about their health and ability to pay for future care. They tend not to trust doctors or other health care providers, and although relatively affluent, they are the least receptive to new products and services. Serving these individuals means providing tools and incentives to enable them to help themselves.
They resist help yet feel incapable of improving their situations on their own. Of all the segments, this group needs the most external motivation, including support groups and financial penalties. Segmenting consumers this way, we believe, will generate innovative thinking on the part of companies within and on the edges of the health industry—organizations ranging from medical practices to life insurers.
Focusing on the healthy, wealthy, and wise, firms could market tax-free health savings accounts to consumers who choose high-deductible insurance plans. Providers, insurers, and employers could use the segmentation to better communicate with and engage members of the various groups. For the benefit of the unfit and happy among its employee base, for example, a company could explain the financial incentives of various health options, showing how much of their own money consumers could save over time by participating in, say, a diabetes management program.
You have 1 free article s left this month. Convenience-related factors like location and appointment availability continue to feature heavily in consumer decisions about where to obtain care, though insurance accepted and clinical expertise remain the top criteria. New findings from this year's survey also underscore the growing interest in alternative care sites, with almost half of respondents reporting that they visited a retail or urgent care clinic in the last year.
Location convenience was the top reason cited for visiting clinics -- reinforcing the need for integrated patient access strategies that not only unify access points, but also enable access to different sites of care. Healthcare organizations aren't making significant strides in adapting to consumerism, even despite increasing demand, competition for patient loyalty and plenty of lip service to the idea.
That's true across the range of hospitals, payers and pharmaceutical companies, according to new research by branding and marketing consultancy specialist Prophet. Appointment availability is uniformly important across respondents: Roughly four out of five consumers rated it extremely or very important. Further underscoring the importance of availability, 30 percent of consumers who visited a clinic in the last year indicated that they did so as a result of their primary care provider not being able to see them.
Insurance remains the top factor in provider selection, followed by clinical expertise. However, compared to , the share of consumers rating cost as extremely or very important decreased 10 percent, while the quality of patient ratings and reviews rose five percent.
Scheduling gaps were found to pose barriers to patient access and satisfaction. While most consumers prefer to call to book an appointment 58 percent , only about 40 percent who called a hospital or health system to schedule one reported that they successfully booked an appointment on their first call.
Online self-service continues to be important for younger generations -- 58 percent of millennials and 64 percent of Gen Xers who prefer to book online would actually switch providers for the ability to do so compared with just 18 percent of Baby Boomers. Also, brand matters.
This finding, juxtaposed with the trend toward new care options, demonstrates that brand may serve as a differentiator for health systems as they expand sites of care. Twitter: JELagasse Email the writer: jeff.
Skip to main content. Revenue Cycle Management. Online self-scheduling engages patients, eases workloads and increases appointments.
Strategic Planning. Employees want direct primary care from their employer plans. Capital Finance.
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