5: Embrace price, quality and financial relationship transparency
To the extent that some piece of information – prices, quality ratings, volume data or financial relationships between industry and providers – may impact consumer choice, it should be readily available to those consumers. A recent RAND report supports this transparency, encouraging consumer input into hospital rankings as well as tools that support personalized consumer choices. Similarly, a Healthcare Dive article discussed how U.S. News & World Report is replacing patient safety indicators (PSIs) with hospital consumer assessment of healthcare providers and systems (HCAHPS) when determining hospital rankings.
What to do next? Instead of fearing transparency, consider the opportunity to outperform your competitors by proactively moving in this direction. This shift will be uncomfortable and there is substantial risk. Move slowly, but start immediately.
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Before despairing over the perceived magnitude of these transformations, recognize that all B2C organizations routinely operate this way. Not only do they compete, they thrive and are among the most successful businesses in the world. If healthcare organizations truly want empowered patients making smarter healthcare choices, its essential that consumers are provided with decision-making authority and the information needed to support those decisions. Getting there will neither be fast nor easy, but the payoff for healthcare organizations that proactively move in that direction may be substantial.
About the author: C. Anthony Jones is the CEO of Frontive.
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