“Right Place, Right Time” Study Shows Health Information Disconnect
January 17 2017 - 1:00AM
Business Wire
New Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded
research identifies the challenges vulnerable individuals face when
accessing health information and offers insight into how the
marketplace could better meet their health information needs.
A major, multi-disciplinary study from Oliver Wyman and Altarum
Institute, developed with support from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, found that most vulnerable healthcare consumers
struggle to understand their options, their costs, and even the
language around their care. The research also explored marketplace
perceptions of these consumers’ health information needs and
discovered a gap between stakeholder impressions and consumers’
reality.
“These findings tell us that many consumers, especially the most
vulnerable, face significant barriers in finding the information
they want and need,” said Andrea Ducas, program officer at the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “We must address serious gaps in
access to information in order to build an inclusive health care
system for all.”
The study findings, released today in conjunction with an Oliver
Wyman-hosted panel discussion on this topic at the 2017 World
Economic Forum, are the culmination of the “Right Place, Right
Time” initiative – which aims to shed light on how consumers access
health information and how the marketplace can better meet their
needs.
To view the “Right Place, Right Time” reports, please visit:
oliverwyman.com/RightPlaceRightTime.html and
www.altarum.org/RightPlaceRightTime.
About this study:
This research focused on the needs of lower-income consumers,
Medicaid beneficiaries, the uninsured, caregivers, and Spanish
speakers. For the consumer component, Altarum Institute conducted
interviews with 65 consumers and a nationally representative mail
and web survey of more than 4,000 respondents.
For the marketplace component, Oliver Wyman conducted interviews
with approximately 100 executives from across the health landscape
to assess the current state of health information provision.
Follow-up interviews gauged stakeholders’ reactions to the consumer
findings.
“Today’s healthcare organizations need a multi-pronged strategy
to ensure they are providing all consumers with the right
information, in the right place, at the right time,” said Helen
Leis, Oliver Wyman partner and study lead. “These reports provide a
robust set of data to help guide those decisions.”
Key findings and stakeholder reactions include:
Vulnerable consumers want more, better cost
information:
- About 50
percent of respondents are not satisfied with healthcare
cost information.
- The uninsured are the least satisfied,
with 70 percent of uninsured
respondents not satisfied.
Spanish speakers are reluctant to ask for resources in their
language:
- Almost
half of Spanish-speaking respondents say that language
issues present a barrier when communicating with doctors.
- When resources are not offered
outright, some Spanish speakers worry about prejudice and may seek
a different care provider.
- While most health organizations have
Spanish-language resources, they did not have protocol for
proactively offering them.
Many low-income patients in poorer health feel disrespected
by providers and are less likely to trust healthcare information or
follow medical advice:
- Nearly 40
percent of low-income consumers in poorer health felt
disrespected.
- Patients feeling disrespected are
three times more likely to
believe doctors are inaccurate and two
times more likely to not take their medications as
directed, compared with patients who feel respected.
- The high correlation between patients
who feel disrespected and non-adherence prompted marketplace
leaders to identify opportunities to ensure consumers are treated
with respect.
Patients seek clues to provider warmth through online patient
reviews and provider photos:
- While only 42
percent of survey respondents had used patient reviews,
of those that did, 83 percent
say reviews influenced their choice of doctor.
- Respondents said respect and
sensitivity are among the most important qualities in a physician,
and they look for that in provider photos.
- Marketplace reaction included setting
goal to be more intentional about the provider photos and more
proactively manage patient reviews.
Caregivers are information “superusers”:
- Caregivers for children are nearly
three times as likely to use a
health app as non-caregivers (70 percent vs 25 percent).
- Health plans and providers acknowledged
the need to involve caregivers even more during information
dissemination as well as care delivery.
“We have placed an increasing burden on consumers to make smart
decisions about their healthcare or risk their own wellbeing.
Despite this, we have not always equipped consumers with the
information they need to manage their health affordably,” said Dr.
Chris Duke, research director of the consumer study and director of
Altarum Institute’s Center for Consumer Choice in Health Care.
About Altarum Institute
Altarum Institute (www.altarum.org) integrates objective
research and client-centered consulting skills to deliver
comprehensive, systems-based solutions that improve health and
health care. Altarum employs over 450 individuals and is
headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., with additional offices in
Portland, Maine and the Washington, D.C., area. For more
information, visit www.altarum.org or on Twitter @Altarum.
About Oliver Wyman and its Health & Life Sciences
Practice
Oliver Wyman’s Health & Life Sciences practice serves
clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices,
provider, and payer sectors with strategic, operational, and
organizational advice. Deep healthcare knowledge and capabilities
allow the practice to deliver fact-based solutions. For the latest
on the business of transforming healthcare, visit
health.oliverwyman.com.
About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has
worked to improve health and health care. We are working with
others to build a national Culture of Health enabling everyone in
America to live longer, healthier lives. For more information,
visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at
www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.
View source
version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170116005793/en/
Oliver WymanKathryn Weismantel,
312-345-3328kathryn.weismantel@oliverwyman.comorAltarum
InstituteKen Schwartz, 202-772-5062ken.schwartz@altarum.org
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