SCHWARTZ HEALTHCARE-IT BLOG

A Tip for HCIT Marketers

Part 11 in a Continuing Series on PR Strategy and Tactics

Forrester Research is offering a free trial membership on their Web site (http://web2.forrester.com/forr/reg/loginreg.jsp ).  The service offers access to free research alerts and other valuable nuggets that can help in marketing and PR campaigns.  Analyst Liz Boehm writes in a "First Look Alert" about healthcare consumerism, to see hit the "Continue Reading" link...

It seems you can't turn around these days without bumping into healthcare consumerism. Some companies are trying to spur it. Others are trying to take advantage of it. Some seem just plain bewildered.

At Forrester, we decided to delve into our Consumer Technographics data to try to figure out what consumers think about all of this. We segmented consumers by cost-sensitivity and found that understanding consumers' propensity to choose the lowest-cost healthcare options and their willingness to trade cost for control helps to predict all kinds of healthcare behaviors. For example, bargain hunters are more likely to use generics; visit healthcare Web sites; and research medical conditions, treatment options, provider cost and quality, and health insurance options.

By contrast, cost-indifferent consumers are more likely to track their healthcare expenses. The following is a sampling of some of our recent research on consumerism-related trends and issues.
Consumerism shifts the roles and goals of online health information seekers.

If you thought Social Computing sites like MySpace.com and Wikipedia were just for swapping gossip and looking up the control mechanisms for nondeterministic Turing machines, think again. Consumers -- especially Gen Xers and Gen Yers -- are using Social Computing for healthcare.

And older consumers aren't immune to the pull of peer support and easy-to-understand health content either. At least 20% of consumers with cancer, congestive heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease use Social Computing for health -- despite median ages well over 50.

Regardless of whether they end up at Social Computing or more traditional online health resources, more than 70% of online health information seekers use a Web-based search engine to initiate their research, a fact that's likely to lead to even greater use of Social Computing resources down the road.

Health insurers are subject to consumerism in the plan selection process.

Sixteen percent of insured consumers report switching health plans in the past 12 months  -- and another 10% expect they'll do so in the next year. Although consumers who get their insurance at work still largely rely on employer-supplied information to aid their plan choices, a growing number of them are using the Web to aid their decision-making, and the same is true of the individual market.

Unfortunately, most health plan Web sites are still not quite up to the challenge of helping consumers choose a plan -- and fragmented branding offline and online only makes things worse. Health plans face an uphill climb in addressing the challenges engendered by consumerism, challenges that will require substantial changes to their front-end CRM solutions and infrastructure architecture.

Retail healthcare outlets change the landscape of healthcare consumerism.

CVS bought Caremark; Wal-Mart and Best Buy are joining the healthcare fray; and new entrants like eq-life, Revolution Health, and Lifespring are popping up left, right, and center. The retail transformation of healthcare is still in its infancy, but Forrester believes that this emerging trend is here to stay.

Mergers and acquisitions, new ventures, and new business models will continue to emerge over the next two to three years as hospitals, pharmacies, retail giants, and technology companies continue to seek new revenue streams. Bear in mind, consumers are still not flocking en masse to online prescription purchasing -- despite the success of pharmacy benefits manager giants like Medco -- suggesting that perhaps healthcare really is local.

Posted by Shawn Whalen on August 10, 2007 at 12:08 PM
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