Key points and concepts from the William Blair Consumer-Centric Healthcare: 2022 Update

Digital Healthcare

Each year since 2005 William Blair has released an annual summary on the state of healthcare consumerism. This year’s report is especially interesting because a series of reports signal that the healthcare system has finally reached a point where the stage is set for a truly consumer-centric ecosystem to thrive. 

They describe the paradigm shift in the healthcare industry that is unfolding at a rapid rate to finally provide solutions to the unsustainable and a widely variable-quality healthcare system in the United States.

With the COVID-19 pandemic as the tipping point, it continues to exponentially drive change in new technology and the market which is putting the consumer at the center of healthcare provider and delivery investments. Price transparency, affordability, virtual care, and convenience have become expectations among consumers of all ages. Providers that can’t meet these demands will lose significant market share. Here are some of the most important key factors driving the change:

  1. Growth in consumer-centric care models will be exponential through 2027 and beyond.
  2. Consumerism will be Business as Usual (BAU) for health plans and they will seek strategic solution partners to deliver in a timely fashion.
  3. We have the solutions to enable the evolution and scaling of value-based care.
  4. A healthcare financial crisis looms which will require new models and new technology to bend the cost curve. 
  5. The cover has been ripped from pricing in healthcare which is likely to impact healthcare consumer behavior.
  6. We must relentlessly pursue bringing disparate data sets together and help consumers make sense of it all.
  7. The retail mindset has set in and consumers expect healthcare to respond with familiar retail consumption patterns.
  8. Accessibility and convenience are in high demand and orchestration of convenience will be the differentiator.
  9. Connectivity and the internet of things will flourish as consumers expect answers to be embedded in the context of their complicated life experiences.

Now as a part of Zelis, we are poised to deliver on these promises as a strategic technology and strategy partner to health plans, employers, third party administrators and their membership by bringing payers, providers, and consumers together into one efficient system.

For more information on how Zelis+Sapphire can help, contact your sales representative or Account Manager.