Web-based Patient Empowerment

Many industries must balance increasing costs with market constraints on maximum prices, including the pass-through costs to consumers. As challenging as this scenario may be, several industry leaders effectively have addressed these issues throughout the past decade.

Many industries must balance increasing costs with market constraints on maximum prices, including the pass-through costs to consumers. As challenging as this scenario may be, several industry leaders effectively have addressed these issues throughout the past decade.

 One well-known example is the airline industry. Confronted with burgeoning fuel costs, airlines strained to maintain their fares within consumers’ expectations— a must if they wanted to avoid lost revenue as consumers elected to travel with lower-cost carriers— or changed travel plans altogether. Airline executives have addressed this issue by deploying technology such as self-service Web sites, which allow consumers to select the travel options they wish, at a lower cost per sale for both the airlines and the consumer. Equally as important, the portals supply consumers with value-added tools and capabilities that had not previously existed. Beyond ordering airline tickets, consumers can now design their entire travel experience from flights and hotels, rental cars and cruises, to vacation packages and more.

 This entire process is fully integrated into the airline’ s customer relationship database, enabling the airline to fully leverage the new delivery platform with tools that provide consumer “pull” to encourage usage of the portal as well as tracking tools to quantitatively measure the effectiveness of their programs. Online initiatives include the development of cost-effective e-mail campaigns and e-newsletters, online tracking and management of frequent flyer programs, and targeted promotions based on passenger preferences or travel history. With the implementation of these one-stop travel portals, the industry has moved from a single-service supplier to a complete travel solution— increasing total revenue and market share while delivering expanded and improved services based on consumer needs.

 The banking industry also has found great success with its online banking and bill payment. In fact, these service features quickly became powerful influencers in consumers’ selection of banks and in their perception of the bank’ s brand. The widespread adoption of online banking represented a significant advancement in the marketplace’ s acceptance of online transactions and management of personal data. The healthcare industry has not been oblivious to this growing trend. With the spread of consumer-directed healthcare, health leaders have realized that patients need greater access to their own healthcare information, as well as tools to better manage their healthcare costs.

 Advantages to Patients are Many

 Many providers and insurers have begun to offer patient-centric portals. These portals deliver 24/7 access to personal healthcare data and management tools— a huge leap from the brochure-ware Web sites of the past. Additionally, the portals have supplied the foundation for a whole new level of transparency in the industry. Now, patients can see the true cost of prescription drugs, laboratory tests, operational procedures, and provider visits. This newly accessible data empowers patients to make decisions appropriate to their healthcare needs and budgets. This is particularly important given that patients are now responsible for a greater portion of their healthcare costs, due to higher deductibles and reduced coverage overall.

 Beyond pure cost savings, the patient portals also offer patients an expanded healthcare experience. In order to take full advantage of the portal functionality, patients are encouraged to participate in the online health risk assessment, which then populates their portal view with wellness program suggestions or disease management guidance, based on the results of the assessment. Initial feedback has shown that these patient portals have become an extension of healthcare providers’ face-to-face care by encouraging compliance with providers’ recommendations, ranging from the timely scheduling of tests, to renewing prescriptions and making lifestyle changes.

 Many of these patient portals are evolving into personal health records, with comprehensive historical data on laboratory test results, provider visits, medications and other healthcare information that may be critical in a time of crisis, or during non-crisis situations such as travel or relocation. Ideally, these portals will eventually link to electronic medical records to allow real-time updating of medical information that would be readily accessible for patients whenever and wherever needed. A less tangible, but compelling facet of patient portals is the creation of an online patient community. An online community requires trust in the information provided and belief that any information inputted will be securely maintained. Given that most patient portals are currently offered by providers or insurers, patients have strong confidence in the medical information provided and in the portal host’ s assurances of data security.

 In addition to this extensive medical resource, the portal also may provide a new medium for interaction with the provider or medical staff to fulfill requests for appointments, prescription refills and non-urgent medical queries. One of the newer developments is a patient-focused blog, or even a simple column that addresses patients’ questions. This forum provides yet another method of mass communication on issues that patients with common health issues may share. Moderator-hosted blogs often allow individuals to exchange advice and support with fellow patients as they struggle with specific health issues or attempt to make lifestyle changes.

 Consumer Communities

 Providers also benefit from the implementation of patient portals. With every patient that chooses to utilize the patient portal, providers can reduce costs by shifting many labor-intensive staff activities to this online platform (e.g., appointment scheduling, refill requests). Given the reductions in insurance payments for care delivery, providers have a strong incentive to reduce costs while they strive to improve the quality of care. Similar to the airline and banking industries, maximum efficiencies are realized once the portal is tied into the healthcare provider or insurer’ s customer database. This is especially important with the initial rollout of the portal. By targeting the patient list, the provider or insurer can quickly grow the portal’ s charter membership. At first, communication efforts to solicit participation may include offline activities such as printed materials, in-facility flyers and direct encouragement from medical personnel.

 However, once a database of e-mail addresses is obtained, these communications become extremely cost-effective with e-newsletters, online seminars, and health-focused online updates. Additionally, as competition increases for new patients, healthcare organizations are searching for a sustainable growth model, one that can enable them to satisfy and retain existing patients while attracting new ones. Rather than waiting for a trigger event to transform a consumer into a patient, providers can begin a proactive outreach to encourage consumers to join this Web-based community for accurate healthcare information, either for assessing existing conditions or for an anticipated health or lifestyle change. Furthermore, once this online community begins to grow, word of mouth, which may take the form of forwarded e-newsletters, will also help grow the community’ s membership in a grass roots manner.

 Adoption is Critical

 The impact of patient portals can be far-reaching. Patients gain relevant healthcare information, expanded access to their healthcare data and patient-centric tools that enable better-informed decision-making. Moreover, by providing these value-added healthcare services to the patient community, the health status of the greater community will be elevated as well.

 Although the healthcare industry has unique challenges related to privacy and security legislation, there is still much to be gleaned from the past experiences of other industries. The incorporation of established best practices for online services will contribute to the healthcare industry’ s successful deployment of patient portals.