Healthcare Vital Signs

A one-size-fits-all consumer strategy is unlikely to meet the diverse needs of most existing healthcare providers’ patients. The ability to access healthcare assessments, advice and even face-to-face appointments, similarly to how we access a range of social networks, are likely to become the norm and not the exception. Technological innovation and our on-demand culture have converged with several economic forces to strengthen the tide of healthcare consumerism. Higher deductibles and copayments, greater transparency in provider performance and costs, and the narrowing of healthcare insurers’ networks and provider-led health plans are beginning to create the framework to allow patients to become more involved in healthcare decision making than ever before. The convergence of these forces with traditional care models that are organized around the physician – or the hospital and the costly services it offers – is leading consumers to seek alternatives to traditional options. Because they are vested financially, consumers are seeking new channels for getting many kinds of care. This is especially true of millennials, who are more open to new technologies and far less enamoured with traditional models. WHY IS IT HAPPENING? While employer- and government- sponsored insurance plan typically cover the greatest share of coverage, U.S. consumers and their families are emerging as the fastest growing payer segment in the industry, according to NRC Health, one of the nation’s largest healthcare performance organizations. Traditional industry players (physicians, hospitals, insurers, drug and medical device purveyors, etc.) and new entrants are taking notice. 36 | CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD