There is an increasing body of research which indicates that 2019 will be a key year in the development of increased “healthcare consumerism”, according to a recent report in Rev Cycle Intelligence.
Data from a TransUnion Healthcare patient analysis indicated that the average person now pays almost $2,000 annually for out-of-pocket healthcare costs. In addition, a recent report entitled “Top Health Industry Issues of 2019” authored by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) stated that the “byzantine” payment system of the US Healthcare Industry is being disrupted, having fallen behind other industries in terms of modernisation.
These reports add up to a concern for doctors and other healthcare practitioners with regard to attracting, retaining and ensuring effective payment collection from patients. The onus is now on the healthcare industry to provide a more consumer-friendly model for patients in terms of affordable service options and price transparency.
The PwC report recommends a data-centric approach to healthcare providers in terms of managing this potential problem and for greater attention to be paid to customer experience and feedback, developing customer segmentation to enable more targeted services to be offered to selected patients (with potentially higher returns), and – importantly – better utilisation of technology to effectively implement such strategies.
Grace Century President and Director of Research Scott Wolf commented “This report sits right in the centre of the area where our portfolio project Quantum and their wider group of partner companies are concentrating their efforts. It is an inevitability that a more consumer-centric approach to healthcare will evolve, and it is the innovative technology being developed by Quantum and its partner companies such as MediXall which will underpin the evolution”.
