Everyone wants to regard themselves as being ahead of the competition.
Companies in the healthcare industry need to incorporate futurecasting into their strategic planning, or risk losing competitive ground.
In the US, the cost of healthcare is a well-publicized and constant concern for many people, and in turn, health insurers need to know how people make their decisions when it comes to healthcare.
And despite leaps in access to relevant innovation and technology, recent reports indicate something that might come as a surprise.
Healthcare influencers
With all manner of tech at everyday consumers’ fingertips, from Googling your own symptoms to an infinite number of health-related apps, reports are emerging showing that patients are more likely to go with their doctor’s recommendation for health insurance, rather than look for a cheaper deal.
This of course bucks every trend healthcare providers, insurers, and entrepreneurs working on related tech would believe.
But just how low is the number of people who look into cheaper insurance, and potentially going against the advice of their doctor? Fewer than 1%.
The role of market intelligence in futurecasting
It’s a surprising statistic for sure, but it’s the type of surprise that market intelligence helps companies like health insurers to manage.
One hypothesis for this finding is that it’s difficult to get a clear understanding of healthcare costs from providers. Insurance companies can choose to use the information to promote it.
Insurance companies can start collating the costs of various procedures, and present consumers with transparent costs, and partner with providers to offer patients the best costs. If one company were to step forward and do this, market intelligence would allow insurers to monitor the impact of such things on the marketplace – and it will have an impact. It would add an extra dimension of competition which would need to be factored into strategic planning.
This article was originally published on ShiftCentral, now part of LAC Group.
Mario Thériault
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