Once upon a time, healthcare marketing meant newsletters and tri-fold brochures, tabletop displays and company health fairs. As the business of healthcare has evolved, so has the role of marketing professionals now accountable for much more than brand awareness and stress ball distribution. Today’s patients are price-savvy consumers who demand transparency, and today’s marketing execs are often called on to fill that need.
Why Transparency?
“Regardless of which part of healthcare you’re in, people want to understand what healthcare will cost before they consume it,” said Brandon Edwards, CEO of ReviveHealth. The Nashville agency, which joined forces with Weber Shandwick last year, is an integrated marketing communications firm for all things healthcare. “We’re the only industry left where we buy things sight unseen,” Edwards continued.
There are many drivers behind the call for increased transparency. Higher deductibles can leave patients with the lion’s share of a medical bill, the provider of choice might not necessarily be the one nearest home, and national quality initiatives and patient satisfaction scores all push for transparency, meaning providers are feeling the strain from all sides.
“There’s a body of data growing that shows you can diffuse a lot of things by being transparent with people about costs, risk and mistakes,” said Nicole Cottrill, business development partner at DVL Seigenthaler. “That goes a step beyond treating them as a consumer – and making patients a part of the healthcare team. Healthcare is an arena where, as a consumer, you often have so little control over what happens to you. This is one way to give people some of that control back. ”
For marketing pros, that means patients need transparency and they need it from a source they can trust. Edwards said insurance companies and even healthcare providers can be perceived as less than trustworthy because of vested interests. Edwards cites the pharmaceutical industry as a sector that’s accomplished cost transparency well.
“If you want to be a leader today you have to do difficult things,” Edwards said. “Recognition of that is hard, and it’s forcing healthcare marketers to think more about business and less about brand imaging.”
Less Pitching, More Business
Todd Smith, president and CEO of Nashville-based Deane/Smith, said the transition from marketers to business partners is increasingly prevalent, as more and more clients are bringing PR and marketing into the C-suite. “There’s a massive transformation underway in the healthcare industry with how we brand companies,” Smith said. “Think about it not only in advertising and marketing but in all platforms. The changing patient/physician/hospital relationship has given patients leverage to keep their doctors and hospital accountable for their health.”
While the move toward transparency is still in its infancy, Edwards said he’s seen notable organizations like the Cleveland Clinic bend over backward to help people make better choices. That means patients know out-of-pocket costs before scheduling a visit. For the Cleveland Clinic, it also means a link to accepted health plans on their homepage and visible billing and insurance links, including access to the Office of Patient Experience.
“We’re in an era where marketing can’t operate independently of operations,” Edwards said. “It’s not about what we say but delivering something different to people that they care about and not what we care about.”
According to Smith, our society’s bombardment of messages from multiple platforms means clarity and transparency are absolutely vital – not just in healthcare but in all industries. “From both the patient and provider side, we’re in a whole new world where transparency and clarity must be a part of everyday life,“ Smith said.
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