It is appropriate for consumers to have financial exposure to the cost of their coverage and care so that they can take appropriate measures in preventing diseases, getting great care as well as reducing costs at the same time. Having the financial cost of their coverage and care is important in helping consumers select the best health providers that will benefit them greatly. Apart from helping consumers to select appropriate health providers, financial exposure to the costs of coverage and care will enable consumers to look for favorable ways to save money such as using in-network facilities and doctors. Finally, consumer financial exposure to their costs of coverage and care will help consumers be aware of their health plan benefits and avoid medical errors that occasionally occur.
From my point of view, I think that the various ways in which consumers are now being incentivized to be aware and responsive to the cost of care is great because it has helped in enhancing the quality of care and further keeping individuals healthier for a long time. Incentivizing consumers to be aware and responsive to the cost of care has also encouraged and motivated consumers to take an active approach in maintaining a healthy lifestyle by eating a healthy diet, getting adequate rest, and exercising regularly. In addition to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, incentivizing consumers also help them to practice the prevention of diseases and self-care. It motivates them to get age-suitable health screenings and immunizations to prevent potential conditions. According to Lynch and Gardner (2014), the most suitable approaches that can be used to incentivize consumers is encouraging them to have a proactive choice by giving patients greater visibility into and control of their insurance-based health systems. Another approach to incentivizing consumers is empowering them through education. This can be done by targeting and customizing information to enhance effectiveness.
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Providers should respond to the various approaches in the market to encourage consumers to make more cost-conscious decisions by radically improving their skills in communication, behavioral segmentation, and health informatics and customer relationship. They should also connect with IT players to assist patients in creating virtual repositories of their health information and link them directly with their providers. On choices, providers should offer their choices on what matters to consumers such standards of cleanliness, success rates of a particular operation, and good communication between the hospital and the general practitioner of patients (Fendrick & Chernew, 2016). Additionally, providers should partner with other parties to ensure that the provided information is objective. Providers can also avail of relevant information through an integrated information platform that permits patients’ choices promptly. This can be through online appointment booking, reporting outcomes, filling the registration form, and providing other feedbacks.
The other alternative approaches that will be used to encourage consumers to be involved in making more informed, value-oriented healthcare decisions include using value-based insurance designs and consumer- direct care approaches. This value-based insurance approach is a system that depends on patients’ co-payments relative to value but not the cost of clinical interventions. In this approach, cost-sharing is used but a clinically sensitive approach is employed to control adverse health consequences that are expensive to the patients. This approach uses advanced health information technology and comparative effectiveness research that help consumers to get healthcare intervention of high value without using a lot of money.
Consumer-direct care is another approach that should be used to encourage consumers to be involved in making a more value-oriented health decisions. This approach emphasizes consumers to play a significant part in making decisions about the healthcare choices by providing patients with upfront financial incentives to choose their care wisely. This approach can spur consumers to be more responsible for their care and seek information about care options. It can also motivate consumers to spur providers to compete for their businesses on higher quality and lower costs basis.
References
Fendrick, A. M., & Chernew, M. E. (2016). Value-based insurance design: aligning incentives to bridge the divide between quality improvement and cost containment. Am J Manag Care , 12 (Spec), SP5-10.
Lynch, W. D., & Gardner, H. H. (2014). Aligning Incentives, Information, and Choice: How to Optimize Health and Human Capital Performance. Health as Human Capital Fou.
