Healthcare has evolved tremendously over the last few decades. One of the biggest recent changes is the increase in medical consumerism. However, many clinics don’t understand consumerism in healthcare or how it affects their operations.
That’s why PracticeForces created a short guide to teach you about healthcare consumerism and how it impacts the industry.
PracticeForces is one of Florida’s leading medical billing and coding companies. We offer exceptional medical billing and coding services that improve your clinic’s efficiency, organization, and more. Whether you need to improve your practice’s billing procedure or want to learn revenue cycle management healthcare challenges, PracticeForces is here to help.
What Is Healthcare Consumerism?
Healthcare consumerism gives patients more control over their medical decisions. They can pick and choose their medical plans, doctor’s offices, and other elements of their healthcare to ensure they receive the best treatments for their condition.
Healthcare consumerism requires medical practices to elevate their services to entice patients to utilize their facilities. If a clinic provides subpar treatments with poor customer service, the patient will go to a rival practice that matches their needs and expectations.
Providing quality yet affordable medical services to patients is essential for any successful medical practice.
What Drives Consumerism in Healthcare?
Although consumerism in healthcare isn’t new, it’s experienced a recent boom in popularity. While many elements play a role in its popularity surge, the three primary driving factors include:
- Value-based healthcare
- Modern medication marketing
- High-deductible insurance plans
Modern patients want to shop around for the best clinic for their needs. If a clinic doesn’t match a patient’s standards, they will visit another practice until they are completely satisfied with their service.
Also, more people have high-deductible healthcare plans than ever before. Since these plans require patients to pay a higher upfront cost for their healthcare services, they want to ensure the services are worth the investment. If the prices aren’t affordable, patients will think twice before utilizing your services—even if your clinic offers all the services they need.
Modern medication marketing has also advanced consumerism in healthcare. The U.S. government reduced prescription advertising restrictions in 1997, allowing manufacturers to advertise to Americans directly. With more people seeing drug advertisements targeting their medical needs, healthcare consumerism grew rapidly.
Although the above factors were the primary causes for healthcare consumerism’s recent popularity surge, other elements that aided the upswing include:
- COVID-19
- The ACA (Affordable Care Act)
- Concierge medicine and Telehealth
Contact PracticeForces for First-Class Medical Billing and Coding Services in Florida
If you want to enhance your clinic’s medical billing and coding procedures to keep up with the surge of consumerism in healthcare, contact PracticeForces. Our team will take your facility’s billing practices to new heights while teaching you about process intelligence in healthcare. We’ve been one of Florida’s leading medical coding and billing companies for over 20 years, ensuring you receive quality service from seasoned professionals.
Give PracticeForces a call at 727-499-0351 and receive unmatched medical billing and coding services in Florida today!
