Healthcare systems around the world are fraught with challenges that reveal the cracks in today's operating models. But a nascent trend that is quickly becoming an imperative is poised to transform the industry: the consumerization of healthcare. By promoting and supporting more control, awareness, and responsibility on the part of the consumer, healthcare companies can drive a dramatic improvement in population health and reduction in costs.
1. strategy+business
ONLINE FEBRUARY 18, 2013
BY GIL IRWIN, JACK TOPDJIAN, AND ASHISH KAURA
Putting an I
in Healthcare
The days of the disengaged health consumer are numbered.
Consumerization will transform healthcare systems, involving
individuals as never before in the management of their own care.
2. I
Putting an I in Healthcare
The days of the disengaged health consumer are numbered. Consumerization
will transform healthcare systems, involving individuals as never before in the
management of their own care.
by Gil Irwin, Jack Topdjian, and Ashish Kaura
1
www.strategy-business.com
n a shopping center on the western outskirts of health insurers enter the bricks-and-mortar retail busi-
Harrisburg, Penn., sandwiched among a women’s ness, including Florida Blue (a licensee of the Blue Cross
clothing shop, a pet supply store, and a dental clin- and Blue Shield Association), which operates a chain of
ic, sits a window into the future of healthcare in the 11 stores stretching the length of its state, and United
United States: Highmark Direct. Open since 2009, it is Healthcare, which opened 30 pop-up stores and more
part of a small chain of nine retail health insurance than 1,400 kiosks in shopping malls in October 2012.
stores scattered across Pennsylvania owned and operated These companies are being driven by a nascent trend
by Highmark Inc., the fourth-largest plan in the Blue that is quickly becoming an industry imperative: the
Cross and Blue Shield Association, which serves 4.9 mil- consumerization of healthcare.
lion members in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Health insurance stores are only one of its manifes-
Delaware. tations—other consumerization initiatives are currently
The retail stores run by Highmark, a US$14.8 bil- under way among insurers, care providers, and pharma-
lion, diversified health-services company, are a direct ceutical companies. Accountable care organizations, for
channel into the growing market for individual health example, are beginning to tie physician compensation
insurance created by reform and by budget-strained to population health. Healthcare bundles combine
employers, many of whom are off-loading healthcare cov- medical care, coverage, and support across a care
erage decisions and costs to their employees. Consumers episode or condition—such as a knee replacement or
walk in or make appointments for consultations with coronary bypass surgery—at a fixed, risk-adjusted price.
Highmark’s licensed agents, who help them navigate the And capitation payment contracts pay providers an
often confusing world of health insurance and assist them annual rate per patient, no matter how much care they
in identifying and applying for coverage. Seniors attend require. These and other efforts skim the surface of a
informational seminars that explain their Medicare cover- game-changing industry transition.
age and supplemental insurance needs. Plan members The word consumerization has several meanings,
learn how to better manage their own health with but we use it here to describe the transformation of an
Highmark’s wellness programs, and contact customer industry from a primarily business-to-business (B2B)
service via self-service kiosks and videoconferencing. enterprise to one that focuses on business-to-consumer
The last few years have seen a handful of other U.S. (B2C) activities. In today’s B2B health marketplace,
3. Gil Irwin Jack Topdjian Ashish Kaura Also contributing to this article
were Booz & Company
is a senior partner with Booz is a partner with Booz & is a partner with Booz & senior partner Gary Ahlquist,
& Company based in New York. Company based in New York. Company based in Chicago. He partner Michael Ruhl, and
He specializes in business He leads the firm’s North specializes in the development senior associate Nate
model and operating model American healthcare technol- of growth strategies and new Holobinko.
transformations in the health- ogy and operations practice business models in response
care industry, with a focus on and global healthcare con- to market discontinuities for
technology and operations sumerization practice. He spe- healthcare and health-services
strategy. cializes in large-scale companies.
transformation and capability
building in the healthcare
industry.
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gil.irwin@booz.com jack.topdjian@booz.com ashish.kaura@booz.com
business is transacted among large employers, payors, tion has been intensified by an explosion of “developed
providers, and pharmaceutical companies. The people nation” diseases. A 2011 study by the World Economic
being insured and treated have little involvement in or Forum and the Harvard School of Public Health esti-
responsibility for their own care and cost choices. In the mated that the cumulative costs of noncommunicable
years ahead, healthcare will evolve into a B2C industry, diseases—including cardiovascular disease, chronic res-
in which consumers will take a much more active role in piratory disease, and cancer—in low- and middle-
their healthcare decisions and expenditures. And, as a income countries would surpass $7 trillion by 2025.
result, every healthcare company and organization will Diabetes is a case in point. Five of the 10 countries with
need to become more consumer-centric. The deck is the highest national prevalence of diabetes are in the
being reshuffled, and there will be new winners and new Middle East. In Mexico, Type 2 diabetes is the leading
losers, depending on how companies play their hand. cause of death among adults. And there are 92 million
This shift is both a reaction to and a result of the people with the disease in China and 63 million in
state of healthcare systems around the world, which are India, according to the International Diabetes
characterized by high costs, lack of access, and unsatis- Federation.
factory outcomes. The U.S. system has been in the spot- These global healthcare challenges have revealed
light for years because of double-digit cost inflation, the cracks in the industry’s current operating models,
frustratingly complex patient experiences, and, most and they demand a new way of thinking. The idea of
recently, the controversial Affordable Care Act. But the consumer-driven healthcare has been around for years,
much-lauded, publicly funded healthcare systems in but now healthcare companies are being forced to act.
nations such as Canada and the United Kingdom are The U.S. is the bellwether in this regard, because the
coming under pressure, too, as their foundation in Supreme Court’s upholding of the Affordable Care Act
fixed-budget, capitation-based care is strained by rising and the reelection of President Barack Obama in 2012
healthcare costs and demand. This is creating allocation have effectively ended the debate on whether to pursue
challenges; for example, the benchmark target wait time reform and turned the industry’s attention to how to
for a knee replacement in Canada was 182 days in 2011, achieve it. Thus, U.S. health insurers, care providers,
and 25 percent of patients were not served within that and pharmaceutical companies are experimenting with
period. It is also creating equity challenges: In the U.K., a host of new models and technologies that should be
a secondary healthcare system is developing, which calls replicable in the healthcare systems of Europe and in
into question the viability of universal healthcare. countries in other regions.
Private medical insurers, hospitals, and care providers Many of these innovative solutions are based on
are springing up to answer the demands of consumers fundamentally sound ideas for cutting costs and
who want more timely care and can afford to pay for it. improving care outcomes. But unless and until the con-
Meanwhile, in developing countries, the struggle to sumer is positioned at the center of the healthcare
extend basic healthcare to large portions of the popula- industry, it is highly unlikely that such concepts will
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Influencing Consumer Behavior
deliver their full potential. Just look at the fate of & Human Services. In a recent analysis of the financial
HMOs (health maintenance organizations) in the effects of five chronic diseases (namely, hypertension,
United States. In the 1990s, HMOs produced lower asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic
costs and provided care comparable to that of other back pain, depression, and rheumatoid arthritis) in
healthcare benefit models. But because HMOs disen- Europe, Booz & Company and the Bertelsmann
franchised their members by imposing constraints on Foundation concluded that national productivity losses
where they could go to obtain care and placed limits on associated with a lack of treatment adherence were
the amount of care they could receive, they created a €10 billion to €20 billion ($13.5 billion to $27.1
consumer backlash, and many failed. billion) in Germany, €8 billion to €19 billion ($10.8
The lesson: To successfully cure the systemic ills of billion to $25.7 billion) in the U.K., and €2 billion to
healthcare in the U.S. and elsewhere, the industry will €4 billion ($2.7 billion to $5.4 billion) in the
have to promote and support more control, awareness, Netherlands (see “Unleashing the Potential of Therapy
and responsibility on the part of the healthcare con- Adherence: High-Leverage Changes in Patient Behavior
sumer. The digital enablers of consumerization—big for Improved Health and Productivity,” by Peter Behner,
data, cloud computing, telemedicine, and social Ab Klink, and Sander Visser, Booz & Company white
media—are already at hand, and can be leveraged by paper, July 2012).
forward-thinking executives. Eventually, as consumer- The ramifications of consumer behavior extend to
focused initiatives multiply and their effects reverberate choices regarding care options and healthcare insurance.
throughout the industry, they could bring about a dra- A 2012 survey by health insurer Aetna Inc. found that
matic improvement in health and a transformational Americans rank choosing a health plan as the second
reduction in costs. most difficult decision in their lives (choosing a retire-
ment plan was first). The survey also revealed that 43
percent of consumers rarely or never track their out-of-
A fundamental reframing of the consumer’s role on pocket care costs. The Consumers Union studied the
the part of healthcare companies is a prerequisite for ability of consumers to select a health insurance plan,
sustainable healthcare systems, because consumer reporting in January 2012, “Almost all participants were
behavior has an outsized influence on the demand for stymied in their desire to identify the best value plan
care and care outcomes. In the U.S., fully 40 percent of among those offered. While their concept of value was
deaths are attributable to behavioral factors—more than sophisticated, participants had little ability to assess
factors such as genetics, environment, and socioeco- the overall coverage offered by a plan.” The Affordable
nomics. And according to the American Medical Care Act is a first step in demystifying the process for
Association, 25 percent of the United States’ total annu- consumers, but they will need sustained guidance and
al healthcare expenditures are the result of behaviors that support.
could be changed, such as smoking, lack of exercise, and Influencing consumer behavior, whether through
poor diet. outright incentives or the design of the subtler, suppos-
Furthermore, once people become ill, their behav- edly more effective changes in choice architecture advo-
ior often exacerbates their condition, as many are cated by economist Richard H. Thaler and legal scholar
unwilling or unable to complete their treatment. The Cass R. Sunstein in Nudge: Improving Decisions About
lack of treatment adherence, such as failing to complete Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Yale University Press,
a medication regime or to cut fat or sugar from a diet, 2008), is no trivial task. Certainly, it will require more
is the cause of approximately 125,000 deaths and 10 than the estimated 4 percent of national health-
percent of hospitalizations in the U.S. each year, accord- care expenditures in the U.S. currently devoted to
ing to a study funded by the U.S. Department of Health behavioral change.
5. The Building Blocks of Consumerization
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1. Insight-powered products and services. As com-
needs, consumers are struggling to make sense of what
There is no fixed starting point or one-size-fits-all strat- kind of coverage to buy. In response, the industry has
egy for consumerization. The different healthcare sec- begun developing more insight-driven offerings, such as
tors and the organizations within each sector will pursue life stage–based products that are tailored to match con-
it in their own ways. But three building blocks are essen- sumers’ evolving health and financial needs as they enter
tial to any successful adoption: (1) product and service the workforce, start families, or prepare to retire. For
portfolios based on insights that are derived from a example, for budget-conscious young people, insurers
nuanced understanding of consumers; (2) tools and are offering policies that feature low premiums and cat-
programs that engage consumers in care delivery and astrophic coverage, while they offer a more comprehen-
influence their behavior, and enable service providers to sive set of benefits to pre-retirees who seek coverage for
optimize and coordinate patient-centric care; (3) and preexisting conditions and protection for their nest
end-to-end customer experiences that produce con- eggs. As insurers draw on ever-expanding data sources,
2. Engaging care delivery. Involving consumers in
sumer satisfaction, trust, and brand loyalty. In develop- we would expect to see more and more of these tailored
ing these products and tools, healthcare companies will products, perhaps including products that are co-brand-
have to master new capabilities—with all the skills, ed with hospitals or that give rewards for healthy behav-
knowledge, behaviors, processes, structures, and tech- ior or offer money-saving coupons for health-related
nology inherent in those capabilities—or risk disinter- consumer products.
mediation. To enhance their ability to capture and utilize
insights, healthcare organizations will need to integrate
panies such as Starbucks and Facebook have demon- all the data they gather from customer touch points and
strated, if products and services are accessible and can be meld it with external demographic, behavioral, and atti-
personalized in ways that make them highly relevant, tudinal consumer data. Then, they will need to artfully
consumers will not just buy them. They will alter their redesign their processes and systems to optimize their
lifestyles and behaviors to use them (for example, paying products and services and to affordably bring them to
$4 for a cup of coffee). market. For instance, companies will have to adopt
Occasionally, such products and services are born of rapid product design processes and create a tighter
intuition. But in most cases, their genesis is found in alignment between the product development function
insights about consumers. Such insights come from a and consumer-facing functions, such as marketing,
deep study of what consumers need and desire, and how sales, and customer service. In many healthcare compa-
they act. As healthcare companies become more effec- nies, this will be easier said than done, requiring funda-
tive gatherers of insight, they will seek to study their mental shifts in how business is conducted, how success
consumer markets in increasingly sophisticated ways. is measured, and how the corporate culture operates.
They will segment them according to preferences,
health status, care utilization levels and patterns, lifetime the care delivery process will require the development of
customer value, and propensity to purchase specific tools and programs that incentivize people to pursue
products and services, whether those offerings are insur- healthier lifestyles and participate more actively in the
ance plans, medical care, or medications and medical medical treatment they receive, and enable a new clini-
devices. cal operating paradigm that coordinates care around the
We are already seeing the glimmerings of this more patient.
sophisticated, consumer-centric approach to product Consider the advent of healthcare bundles. As more
and service innovation in the health insurance sector. In and more bundles appear on the market, their cost and
the absence of a clear value proposition, accessible lan- quality will become more transparent, enabling con-
guage, and a full understanding of their own insurance sumers to easily shop for them. In turn, this will encour-
6. 5
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age competition among the providers that offer bundles. move up to higher levels.”
In a Booz & Company survey of roughly 1,000 U.S. Whole Foods has also established the Total Health
healthcare consumers in October 2012, 78 percent of Immersion Program for its least healthy and most at-
respondents found the concept of bundled care appeal- risk employees. It is a one-week, medically supervised
ing. Among the benefits they would expect to reap from program that provides intensive education about
bundles are lower prices, greater price clarity and trans- healthy eating and living. Mackey reports that more
parency, more integrated care, the ability to provide than 1,300 employees took advantage of the program in
input in care processes, and simplified billing. its first two years, prompting the company to extend the
Healthcare bundles are starting to drive costs down program to spouses and partners. In 2013, Whole
by streamlining, standardizing, and coordinating what Foods plans to begin offering the program to the pub-
were formerly discrete and often highly variable process- lic. “It’s a win-win strategy for all stakeholders
es and procedures, transforming them into comprehen- involved,” Mackey told us. “When we have healthy
sive, patient-centric delivery systems. In October 2012, team members, they are happier, and happy team mem-
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced agreements with six bers provide better customer service to our shoppers. It
leading hospital systems, including Cleveland Clinic, also leads to the company needing to spend less on
Geisinger Health System, and Mayo Clinic, for exclu- healthcare, which is better for investors.”
sive, fixed-price care bundles for certain heart, spine, Consumer engagement is also an area where phar-
and transplant surgeries. This enabled the company to maceutical companies can make an impact. For exam-
3. Compelling end-to-end customer experiences. In
provide incentives to employees who choose one of the ple, Biogen Idec and Merck Serono have been making
six providers. If an employee who requires one of these impressive improvements in the treatment of multiple
procedures uses one of the fixed-price bundle providers, sclerosis. Using Web-based engagement tools and
the employee’s out-of-pocket expenses are eliminated patient services that add “beyond-the-pill” value, they
and other expenses related to receiving the care, such as show consumers how their behavior can maximize the
travel, lodging, and food for the patient and a caregiver, effectiveness of therapies.
are provided without charge. These consumerization pioneers are not seeking to
As Walmart’s agreements suggest, employers can change the behaviors of one patient at a time. Instead,
play a valuable role in encouraging consumer engage- they are integrating behavioral cues into a coherent
ment. Whole Foods Market, which provides its own therapeutic system that reinforces medical management
health insurance to its employees, is using several pro- and improves outcomes. To achieve truly engaging
grams to build healthy lifestyles into its corporate cul- delivery, care will have to be coordinated among con-
ture. In CEO John Mackey’s new book, Conscious sumers, care providers, and insurers. Simplified and
Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business (with transparent pricing strategies will be needed to help
Raj Sisodia, Harvard Business Review Press, 2013), consumers make more informed decisions. Tools
Mackey describes Whole Foods’ Team Member Healthy and programs will be needed to help them participate
Discount Incentive Program. It is a voluntary program in their own care. And, of course, the technology
in which employees can go to a mobile lab that will infrastructure, analytics, and devices that help them
measure basic biometrics, such as cholesterol levels, fully engage will need to be ubiquitous within health-
body mass index, and blood pressure. The healthier care systems.
the employee, the higher Whole Foods will raise his
or her store discount above the standard 10 percent. healthcare today, customer experiences tend to be pas-
At the highest level, employees can obtain a 30 percent sive and fragmented, as the consumer is passed from
discount. “Within our culture,” writes Mackey, “it department to department and care provider to care
has become a matter of pride for team members to provider. Thus, the quality of the customer experience
7. 6
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Enabled by Technology
can vary widely by touch point, and there is often little family-friendly policies, and the redesign of facilities to
or no coordination among the many touch points in the build in directional cues and create calmer, more attrac-
end-to-end process of purchasing insurance or receiving tive settings.
care. Unsurprisingly, this results in less-than- Of course, before a customer experience can be
compelling customer experiences, and correspondingly improved, it must be understood. This starts with a
low levels of customer satisfaction, trust, and brand loy- mapping of the current customer experience and a clear
alty. According to the American Customer Satisfaction understanding of how consumers interact with the
Index, an independent national benchmark based on brand. Highmark, for example, used a variety of tech-
surveys of more than 70,000 people, U.S. consumers niques and tools—including research, site visits, con-
rank hospitals just above the U.S. Postal Service in terms sumer interviews, consumer experience simulations,
of customer satisfaction. They rank health insurers lower ethnography, and operational data—to understand how
yet, in the company of utilities and wireless service consumers perceived their experience with the compa-
providers. ny. Health organizations must then develop the skills
In the health insurance sector, creating compelling and tools needed to enhance touch points and deliver
customer experiences that bolster satisfaction, trust, and information in ways that are accessible to consumers.
brand loyalty will require more personalized approaches
to selecting products, more transparent and comprehen-
sible plan options and costs, and less onerous enroll- The common thread in nearly all consumer-driven ini-
ment processes. Once customers sign on, a more tiatives is the digitization of healthcare. Big data and
compelling experience will encourage and support them new technologies will enable organizations to adopt
in their quest to manage their own health through sim- new products and services by simultaneously support-
plified claims processes and less complex billing. ing personalization, superior clinical outcomes, and
In 2011, Cigna launched its largest brand campaign affordability. Although some technologies have yet to be
to date, “Go You,” a $25 million marketing effort widely adopted in healthcare, some companies are
designed to attract consumers with a more personalized already using new platforms to engage with consumers.
customer experience. Go You is more than an ad Healthcare companies have access to untold
campaign. Cigna is supporting it with 24/7 world- amounts of clinical and financial data. But to make it
wide customer service; a Web portal, www actionable, they need to convert this data into readily
.MyCignaforHealth.com; social media apps; tools, such understandable information. When this information is
as Intuit Inc.’s Quicken Health Expense Tracker, that made available and accessible to the consumer through
help plan members better manage their medical care personalized channels, it will affect their behavior—
and costs; and mobile applications that help members whether the information is a treatment reminder, a
locate nearby pharmacies and emergency rooms. Plan lifestyle suggestion, or direction to an optimal site of
members are also provided access to health coaches for care. Some healthcare payors are now using the insights
chronic conditions and wellness programs. gleaned to create more effective products and services
Hospitals have been on the forefront of the effort to that align their benefit structure with the individual’s
create more compelling customer experiences. Many needs. For example, Bloom Health, a Minnesota-based
have sent teams to companies that are known for the private health insurance exchange, uses big data and
world-class customer experiences they provide, such as analytics to transfer decisions about health benefits from
Walt Disney Company and the Ritz-Carlton hotel employers to employees. Its website includes a decision
chain, to become more adept at serving customers. One engine that asks employees a series of questions aimed at
result is the addition of experiential elements such as guiding them to the policy that best fits their needs,
valet services, streamlined admissions processes, more financial situation, and risk tolerance. In 2011, a trio of
8. messaging between patients and advanced and final phase, “Support
care providers; the integration of My e-Community,” patient engage-
personal patient data, such as ment is enhanced with a fully inter-
genetic, behavioral, and medical his- operable platform that supports
tory information, into the providers’ seamless information sharing
electronic records; and patient between a patient and the entire care
The National eHealth Collaborative access to the quality, safety, and team.
released its road map in November experience ratings of care providers. Today, various players are at dif-
2012. It begins with “Inform Me,” an Next, during the “Partner with Me” ferent stages of the road map,
initial step during which consumers step, the penultimate phase of though most have yet to move
are provided with standardized engagement, patients are given con- beyond “Empower Me.” As compa-
forms and information about dition-specific management tools nies continue the evolution, they will
advanced directives, privacy, and and access to care summaries to not only optimize individual out-
7 specific conditions. The second step, support their personal health main- comes, but also enhance health
“Engage Me,” provides patients with tenance efforts. Also, patient-gener- through the analysis of data and the
access to their electronic health ated information, such as personal identification and dissemination of
records, fitness trackers, and other preferences and wellness and home best practices.
e-health tools. The third step, health device data, is added to their
“Empower Me,” includes secure electronic health records. In its most
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The Patient
Engagement
Framework
large insurers—WellPoint, Blue Cross Blue Shield of patients in 2013, and as many as 3 million patients by
Michigan, and Health Care Service Corporation—pur- 2017. Patient conditions are monitored with remote
chased a 78 percent stake in the company. The ration- devices, and patients who have health concerns can text
ale: They want to learn how to better develop and their doctors instead of making appointments and trav-
market benefit plans that will appeal to consumers. eling to see them.
Cloud computing will be another key technological Finally, given their ability to engage and mobilize
enabler of consumerization, providing, for example, the people, it should come as no surprise that mobile health
platform for long-overdue interoperable electronic (m-health) and social media can support the transition
health records that can provide seamless transitions for to consumerization. During epidemics in the U.S., the
patients and better clinical decision support for physi- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has
cians. Nimbus Health, a Seattle-based startup, is using been a leader in using social media, such as Twitter,
Amazon’s cloud services as a host for its Breeze Medical Facebook, and Wikipedia, to distribute information to
System, software that allows doctors to share medical the public across multiple channels, including smart-
records with other doctors and patients. Of course, any phones. During the 2009 H1N1 swine flu epidemic,
mention of cloud computing may raise concerns about for example, the CDC used social media to disseminate
privacy among consumers, especially when it comes to information on behaviors for avoiding H1N1 and to
their medical history. Although industry security stan- teach people how to recognize its symptoms. The
dards have made considerable headway, hospitals and CDC is also tapping into the power of crowds to
other care providers will need to manage security encourage people to become “health advocates” who
requirements and risk carefully. pass health information through their own networks. It
Telemedicine—remote monitoring and diagno- is expected that m-health and social media use among
sis—is a third enabler of consumer-centric healthcare. It healthcare companies will increase, engaging consumers
promises improved access and lower care delivery costs. more in their own health and wellness—for example,
After a successful pilot project with 6,000 patients in they could use their smartphone to monitor prescrip-
2011, U.K. health minister Jeremy Hunt announced tions, track weight maintenance, and get medical
plans to deliver remote care to 100,000 chronically ill appointment reminders.
9. 8
that continuously improves population health. +
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The Path to Consumerization
Resources
The digital tools are available and accessible, and meet today’s challenges. As Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini
organizations such as the National eHealth told the participants at the HIMSS Conference in Las
Collaborative (NeHC) are devising strategies and stan- Vegas in 2012, “The end of insurance companies, the
dards for integrating them into the U.S. healthcare land- way we’ve run the business in the past, is here.”
scape. The NeHC, a public–private partnership, has Consumerization is the industry’s future. The work will
mapped out a five-phase framework for guiding the be hard, but the rewards promise to far exceed the effort:
development of the technological infrastructure that the a high-quality, cost-effective, and user-friendly system
industry will need to support consumer-centric health-
care. It suggests how the digital components of health-
care may come together in the coming years (see “The
Patient Engagement Framework, page 7).
”
As consumer-driven healthcare spreads, the fundamen-
tal nature of the industry will change—just as in other
industries that have moved from B2B to B2C, such as
banking and computers and electronics. The ultimate Gary Ahlquist, Minoo Javanmardian, Sanjay B. Saxena, and Brett
Spencer, “Bundled Care: The Voice of the Consumer,” Booz & Company
goal for insurers, care providers, and pharma companies white paper, Jan. 2013: According to the results of a recent Booz &
alike is to drive initiatives forward until the industry Company survey, U.S. consumers are ready for the advent of healthcare
bundles.
reaches a tipping point. The new healthcare industry
that results will be adept at influencing consumer behav- Minoo Javanmardian, Ashish Kaura, Sanjay B. Saxena, and Brett Spencer,
iors. It will use sophisticated attitudinal segmentation to “Healthcare after the Ruling: Let the Work Continue,” Booz & Company
white paper, June 2012: What the upholding of the Affordable Care Act
design and deliver personalized products and services, will mean for insurers, care providers, pharmaceutical firms, and other
and its financial performance will be linked directly to healthcare companies.
care outcomes. Such an industry will motivate con-
Ashish Kaura, David S. Levy, and Minoo Javanmardian, “Health
sumers to pursue wellness, and will provide them with Insurance Gets Personal,” s+b, Autumn 2010: Earlier analysis of the
access to healthcare when they need it via the channels health insurance market’s coming retail era.
that they prefer. Avi Kulkarni and Nelia Padilla McGreevy, “A Strategist’s Guide to
Of course, this vision will not materialize overnight. Personalized Medicine,” s+b,Winter 2012: The tailoring of treatments to
It will take years, perhaps decades. And it will require a specific populations is changing the game for key industry stakeholders.
sustained effort across the healthcare industry, invest- Ramez Shehadi, Walid Tohme, and Edward H. Baker, “IT and
ment, and the willingness and ability to change. But Healthcare: Evolving Together at the Cleveland Clinic,” s+b,(online only),
healthcare companies around the world are realizing Aug. 6, 2012: CIO Martin Harris on how information technology is
transforming patient engagement.
that their current business models are insufficient to