Rising Prominence of Ideologies of Healthcare Consumerism
To begin, my book centers on the mission of converting passive patients to “active managers” of their healthcare, a term I will use quite frequently throughout this book. Active managers are people who thoroughly understand the inner workings of their health and can make well-informed and financially beneficial decisions for themselves through research and acquired health literacy. This concept aligns closely with the idea of “healthcare consumerism,” a methodology that has proven successful in this modern day and age, as I will go on to illustrate.
Healthcare consumerism is defined as “putting the economic purchasing power and decision-making in the hands of plan participants . . . [and] enabling patients to become wholly involved in their healthcare decisions.” Rather than blindly accepting decisions that medical providers make on our behalf, patients can now question these decisions and find new solutions or methods that work better for them.
Healthcare consumerism’s goal is to return the purchasing power back to patient consumers, which is achieved by creating competition between healthcare’s different institutions and providers by holding them responsible for the quality of their provided care. The loose origin of this idea traces back to the 1930s, but the modern form of it has developed only within the last decade or so.
The transformed system that healthcare consumerism creates will “foster closer communications and cooperation between doctors and their patients,” “increase patient buy-in and compliance with treatment recommendations,” “increase patients’ knowledge and awareness of lifestyle and wellness practices,” and “focus more on preventative medicine by encouraging healthy activities and habits.” The ideology behind healthcare consumerism extends beyond a mere conceptual framework. It is a system transformation, a lifestyle alteration, and a revolution of the way medicine has been presented and received for centuries.
One of the unique aspects of healthcare consumerism is that the need for higher-quality healthcare challenges current existing businesses to find new sources of value for patients and develop more innovative approaches to their delivery of medicine. This transition to achieve value, not volume is caused by the growing demands of the consumer base population and the growing competition within healthcare entities. In this model, consumers are placed in a position from which they can negotiate their standard of care and request certain characteristics that have long been unstipulated, such as “greater value and quality of service, timely and convenient care, transparent information, and a positive (if not outstanding) patient experience.”
Today, patients can find information about common procedures, ratings for medical providers, and research on different treatments conveniently through their personal laptops and phones. This power of knowledge gives the purchasing power back to the patient consumer.
Healthcare consumerism can serve as more than just a methodology; we can embrace it as a mindset and practice used to demand better quality care for ourselves.
The implementation of the ideals of healthcare consumerism will cause a drastic change in patient perception of healthcare quality and value. We will also see evident differences in the marketing and delivery of healthcare, as both consumers and providers are looking toward more innovative approaches to medicine as the future.
While the effects of healthcare consumerism are still uncertain, some claim that its transformation “should be a more efficient, cost-effective system for all,” hinting at the compelling promise that this transition has in store for us.
Series 1 Article 6
Enjoyed this article? Over the next weeks, I’m going to be sharing excerpts from my book in this article series. The Healthcare Conversation: Navigating the U.S. Health System is available now on Amazon in both paperback and ebook format. If you want to read more stories like this, please check it out and let me know what you think! To connect, you can reach me here via email at linhdoanvo@gmail.com or on social media at linhnout on Instagram.
