What Is Consumer-Driven Healthcare and Why Is It Necessary for Quality Medical Aid

The Institute of Healthcare Consumerism (IHC) has mentioned time and again that the patients are becoming aware. They now prefer to take actions to inform themselves better, get directly involved in their medical care, and are proactive about behaviors that may affect their health.

Patients have begun to see healthcare as a commodity and themselves as consumers. Over the past decade, the trend of choosing a personalized and cost-effective medical aid has grown. The healthcare industry has responded with initiatives that help patients discover the most valuable service for them.

Despite the consumer taking centre-stage and the government reconfiguring its focus, consumer-driven healthcare has had a bumpy ride since its inception. Let’s try to understand just what makes Healthcare Consumerism a tough nut.

Patient Have a Hard Time Looking for Quality Care

Finding the best medical deal is different from finding deals for a television or a smartphone. The patients have to choose physicians, hospitals, and specialists based on their need as well as the collaborative capacity of each office involved. Also, these choices are almost always made with the stress of a medical storm looming overhead.

Denver based Health grades revealed in one of its investigations that both physicians and consumers consider experience-related information to be a valuable tool in determining care quality.

The Indian system is on course to patient-driven care from the traditional doctor-driven one. Add technological advancements in the field to this equation, and you have a well-informed patient. Proactive health management benefits from tools that the patients can use to track their health.

Medical Service Providers Need to Face the Changing Music

The healthcare industry remains mostly opaque when the times demand absolute transparency. Consumers face difficulty while trying to settle on a medical aid provider because of the absence of good enough information.

At present, the medical care providers get paid based on the number of patients, surgeries, admittances, etc. When they shift their focus on the consumer, their payday will get highly affected by the tools they carry, the number and duration of hospital stays, safety measures, quality levels, and customer satisfaction feedback.

Health Insurance Companies Need to Get More Real

Only 5% Indians have an active health insurance plan as per a Macroeconomics report by the World Bank. Most Indian health insurance providers ignore semi-urban and rural population because their prime consumers are urban.

Health insurers need a reinvention. They could learn from the US insurance companies that offer a cover along with services like real time diagnosis tools, cost transparency, wellness programs, etc.

Consumerism Is Bound to Take Over Indian Healthcare Sooner or Later

The present healthcare system in India is mostly about negotiations between the medical care providers and the pharmaceuticals and doctors. With 70% Indians spending most of their earning on medicines, our basic health arrangements have a lot to tackle.