In this ongoing series, our CEO Justin Dearborn reacts to conversations happening in the industry that are helping us better understand the consumer’s point of view in healthcare.
Victor Reiss is Vice President of Consumerism at UNC Health, where he leads a team that is responsible for creating and leading consumer-centric growth marketing and experience strategies.
In an interview that originally aired on the Healthcare Rap Podcast, Victor shed light on how to establish change management initiatives that are crucial for health systems to be consumer driven. If it was easy to undergo a consumer transformation, more organizations would be further along that journey, so it’s important to acknowledge the challenges in going down this path.
This conversation hits on many shared beliefs that align with Praia Health’s point of view. We pulled out some key insights from the episode. For each one, read what Victor shared in the original episode, followed by Justin’s commentary today.
Victor:
What's driving consumerism in healthcare? It's simple. Patients/consumers are paying higher out-of-pocket healthcare costs. So naturally, they're looking for a healthcare experience that mirrors what they experience in other service sectors. Healthcare consumers now are demanding healthcare experiences that are frictionless as those that they experience in their daily life.
Justin’s commentary:
Agreed. As high-deductible health plans have become the norm, most consumers have become cash-pay customers until their deductible has been met. This means that consumers have become price sensitive for low-acuity services spanning retail care, virtual care, labs, and even imaging.
To be clear, this does not mean that "shopping" for services is simple or readily available, but health systems do need to make it easy for patients to access an array of care delivery partners and providers in a seamless manner through the health system.
Victor:
Here is the opportunity. As I tell people, there are 525,600 minutes in a year. Let's estimate a person visits a doctor’s office maybe three or four times a year, and that equates to 100 minutes. From a consumerism perspective, I have the opportunity to influence the 525,500 minutes when the individual is not in a healthcare setting. Wellness awareness, lifestyle, and prevention are all decisions that occur before a person decides to log on or visit a physical facility.
Justin’s commentary:
The vast majority of health factors happen outside of the four walls of a provider's office and stem from individual decisions and choices around food, exercise, and even social interactions, along with socio-demographic factors tied to individual circumstances. It’s increasingly important for health systems to meet patients where they are in both providing support for any socio-demographic issues along with education and content to support healthy decision making.
There has been a proliferation of digital health solutions focusing on both missions, that are often paid for by the provider organization, the payor, and even the employer in some cases. While these solutions often have compelling engagement and outcomes, the core challenge remains with the distribution and awareness of these tools. Providers as the trusted entity are in a unique position to distribute these programs to drive increased conversion.
Victor:
Consumerism is more than a job. It's influencing the organization around a mindset. Consumerism is a lot about change: changing processes, changing business decisions, changing investments, changing that dynamic from being a patient versus a consumer.
Justin’s commentary:
While the bread and butter for health systems has long been providing best-in-class exceptional care, consumer expectations have shifted. EHRs are great at helping patients manage a clinical episode of care, but they are not designed to integrate with a CRM or CDP platform. Patients don’t start their care search in a patient portal or by calling their insurance company – they start with Google. Health systems need to integrate their digital consumer experiences where users spend their time.
Victor:
If you really want to make an impact in consumer transformation, make sure your marketing operation is aligned to your strategic priorities. To that end, make sure that your capabilities not only support their priorities, but they also provide answers or instructive insights to strategic questions. Those strategic questions can vary, but they typically are centered around identifying the winning aspiration for the healthcare system, where to play, how to win, and the capabilities that need to be in place.
Justin’s commentary:
Being able to integrate existing acquisition, content, and service line campaigns into a consumer-grade experience is a must-have in today’s environment. Health systems have ceded patient attention to unbranded patient portals for too long. These patient portals are not designed to retain or attract patients to new services.
Victor:
I jokingly say this, but my fear for many hospitals or healthcare systems is that we are running out of time for relevance. If we don't course correct, we will find ourselves being Blockbuster General Memorial Hospital at the intersection of BlackBerry Avenue and Kodak Drive.
Justin’s commentary:
Survey after survey of late expresses consumers’ desire to select provider organizations that offer a seamless digital experience. These trends have been consistent and are becoming even more prevalent in recent years. Over time, hospitals will become Generic Hospital A and Generic Hospital B as other players – digital pure plays, retailers, and even payors – see Optum – control the upstream ambulatory networks and experiences.
Victor:
We are designing for the consumer in mind. We have supplemented our Press Ganey data with drivers of loyalty, so we know the interaction moments that have a strong bearing on loyalty. So we're focused on some of our improvement strategies that are based upon those drivers of loyalty.
Justin’s commentary:
Loyalty through enhanced experiences is an ideal place to start. Health systems are left with a choice to either spend more money acquiring patients – customer acquisition cost (CAC) – or they can deliver enhanced digital experiences, driving increased loyalty and patient lifetime value (LTV).
The CAC / LTV ratio has been a staple of other retail and consumer-driven industries for years, and it's time for health system leadership to understand the tradeoffs of where they allocate their budget. Rather than pouring more into marketing, why not focus on an enhanced patient experience, eliminating the need to pay to reacquire patients?
Comments in this article were made in good faith based on statements that are publicly available and are not intended to imply any endorsement, promotion, or other affiliation between Praia Health and Victor Reiss, UNC Health, or the Healthcare Rap Podcast.
