Now that 2023 is underway, key trends are emerging that will shape the healthcare landscape against an uncertain economic backdrop and lingering pandemic-related challenges. For payers and providers, inflation and other economic woes are threatening the bottom line. In 2022, U.S. hospitals faced billions of dollars in losses and some estimates report that more than two-thirds of hospitals had negative margins.

Healthcare consumerism and prioritizing the customer experience to boost loyalty are key focus areas for providers and payers in the months and years ahead. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, consumerism is “the promotion of the consumer’s interests.” As customer expectations continue to increase and demographics change, the buzzword “consumerism” has become more weighted than ever.

Taking the phrase “the customer is always right” to new heights, when it comes to customer service from providers and health plans, consumers’ expectations are high. The proliferation of tools that rate customer satisfaction such as review sites, surveys, and social media posts have empowered consumers and publicly amplified their collective voice. The rapidly expanding marketplace is driving competition to new levels, giving healthcare consumers a multitude of choices for where and how to seek care.

In an industry not known for embracing rapid change – some would even say healthcare has historically moved at a snail’s pace – the shifting landscape is challenging some well-established standards in healthcare.

Why healthcare consumerism matters

In the past, payers and providers have not always prioritized consumerism and customer experience. Patients are often faced with limited options as plans and providers typically assert control and dictate the terms of how they will be served. To put it another way, the provider and payer mindset can often be described as, “My way or the highway.”

However, the patient journey roadmap is changing, and payers and providers that fail to acknowledge it may wind up stranded in the breakdown lane. Consumers today expect something better than the old way of doing business. They want to be appreciated, they want transparency, and they want to be served in a way that feels personalized.

Providers and payers need to better engage with consumers to help them access care more efficiently through high-frequency touchpoints, value-added healthcare services, and a broader set of tools and tactics including the human voice and digital connections. The combination of these soft skills and engagement practices will forge a trusted connection between healthcare and consumers.

In addition to embracing the concept of the patient or plan member as a consumer, other driving forces going forward include healthcare costs, quality of care, and convenient access to treatment. Consumer-focused engagement strategies and efficiency-boosting technical tools will be critical, given continued market infiltration of nontraditional players including health-tech startups and major retailers.

It will also be crucial to understand the preferences of the country’s largest adult generation – millennials, those born between the early 80s and mid-90s. In particular, the perceptions of millennials when it comes to what was once an industry cornerstone – primary care – cannot be ignored.u

For example, many millennials don’t prioritize scheduling doctor appointments regularly and don’t recognize the value of the traditional primary care model. If that isn’t enough to convey the challenges that providers and health plans face related to millennials, another factor is this group’s lack of trust in the healthcare system in general. One study revealed that more than one-third of people aged 25 to 34 said they don’t trust their providers.

In order to unlock true healthcare consumerism, the industry will need to address consumers’ mistrust as it relates to channels, reliability, and credibility as well as making access to care simpler, personalized, and more convenient.

Boosting loyalty by prioritizing the customer experience 

It’s clear that the customer experience, or CX, should not be overlooked or deprioritized since healthcare is essentially a CX industry. Research backs this up as a recent study from Deloitte indicated that hospitals perform better financially when patients report positive experiences. According to Harvard Business Review, surveyed healthcare executives indicated that improving CX is a top priority.

However, in the wake of the turbulent pandemic era, the healthcare consumer experience has suffered. In some ways, the crisis that was sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic is having a similar impact on healthcare as 9/11 had on the airline industry – an external event altered the collective experience of an industry that subsequently struggled to keep up with demand even after the crisis subsided.

In 2023, everyday life continues to be upended in many ways, health system and provider workforces are depleted, and the bandwidth to serve customers has been stretched thin. These factors are, of course, understandable as the healthcare industry stood at the frontline when the pandemic emerged and doctors, nurses, and support staff dealt with a virtually unprecedented situation.

But despite what the last three years have entailed, CX has become a catalyst for change and is a focal point of provider and payer strategies to engage healthcare consumers. A recent study by The Lacek Group found that 80% of consumers indicated that their brand loyalty was driven by expectations of a more personalized, immersive, and connected experience.

Research has shown that age also plays a factor when it comes to loyalty. According to a 2022 survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults, Stericycle Communication Solutions found that 95% of respondents aged 55 and over reported they have stayed with the same practice or PCP for routine care. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, that number drops to 82%, showing that younger adults are less loyal to their provider and more likely to consider an alternative.

One approach to improving CX while also keeping a close eye on the bottom line is to outsource. As a company works on a larger scale to serve patients and members while simultaneously lowering labor and operational costs, outsourcing CX helps reduce overall spending. By outsourcing CX, health systems and plans can avoid costs related to recruiting, hiring, training, and providing benefits.

Organizations that look at this less-than-optimal moment in time as an opportunity will have the chance to differentiate themselves from competitors. Trust and empathy can be built with customers by leaning into the situation instead of shying away from it. “How we’ve always done it” doesn’t work anymore, and the healthcare industry needs to embrace innovative ways to get ahead instead of just getting by.

Consumerism and improving the customer experience are only two trends that will impact the healthcare space in the year ahead. As healthcare continues to evolve and challenges arise, it will require boldness and creativity to solve problems and engage people in their healthcare journeys.

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