Feb 19

Feb 19 Millennial Patients: Are Providers Paying Attention?

Millennials created the convenience era by supplying incessant demand for tech products that converted the most personal experiences into a series of clicks. It’s finally, yet slowly, infiltrating one of the most highly-regulated industries: healthcare. Not even the most intimate of one’s experience, meeting with a doctor or talking to a therapist, is off-limits to be swept up in the tidal wave of convenience by clicks.

Millennials stubbornly refuse to engage in inconvenient practices. By generation, they consistently respond most strongly to the influence of digital capabilities in healthcare — even more strongly than the youngest generation. For example, 44% of Millennials would be influenced to add a medical provider if there was easy access to their test results and if they could request prescription refills electronically and access their electronic medical records.

Their lives are dominated and managed through the multi-color apps that blanket their iPhone homepages.

…And Now They Expect it in Healthcare

Millennials desire digital healthcare solutions that will transform their healthcare experience.

The medical mandate for Millennials are solutions like price transparency and on-demand healthcare. These may be shocking revelations for providers, but this is the largest generation, and changes are necessary to engage this group.

Why Should Healthcare Providers Care?

Millennials recently surpassed Baby Boomers as the largest population with 73 million people. And, they have high expectations for healthcare. Now is the time to create a strategy to appeal to Millennials.

It’s not that they don’t care about their health.

Exploring new digital solutions requires a broader look at the cultural, political, and social forces influencing Millennials’ mindset. They are in a position that forces them to forgo healthcare: their rent and student loan obligations come first. As the cost of education has risen 110% in the last decade, something has to give. Deeming themselves healthy, Millennials are ditching primary care doctor visits. The costs of living — those supposedly simple and expected tenets of being an adult — like having children and buying houses are being delayed or altogether avoided due to financial costs. The U.S. birthrate is the lowest it’s been in 32 years.

A Growing Distrust

There is a counter-culture movement in distrust toward the healthcare system, western medicine, and even doctors. This is part of a sweeping distrust movement happening in our country, addressed further in the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer.

A lack of trust in doctors is growing. 38% of Millennials said they trust their peers more than medical professionals, and 55% believe online health information is as reliable as information from a doctor. Only half of millennials were “very satisfied” with information from their doctor, the lowest among all generations.

Millennials are skeptical of a system meant to help them which has become inaccessible due to costs.

One factor driving their skepticism is that Millennials have grown up during a period when very negative healthcare headlines dominate the news cycle. They’ve come to age when the healthcare system is ballooning, with costs growing at a faster rate than the U.S. economy. The system is broken. They’ve seen the rise of GoFundMe as a first resort, not a last resort, in catastrophic medical situations. Healthcare dominates political debates, a divisive topic even within political party lines. They see that globally, healthcare functions more efficiently in other countries, motivating their desire for socialized healthcare.

Plus, Healthcare is More Than a Doctor’s Visit.

Interest in alternative medicine is accelerating amongst Millennials. Unlicensed Instagram influencers are becoming health go-to practitioners by using their platform to generate trust and influence their followers. The popularity of Goop, led by Gwyneth Paltrow, which sells eastern and holistic items like Yoni eggs, is perpetuating a trend of transferring ownership and power of one’s health from the doctor to the patient. When the system is faulting one in many areas of their life, taking back one’s power is a compelling message.

Paging Dr. Google

Then there are the technology expectations. Millennials refuse to use inconvenient and cumbersome technology. People are avoiding doctor visits in favor of working with Dr. Google to answer their questions and provide health solutions. A study found that one in four people have gone more than five years without an annual physical examination, and roughly half admit to putting off treatment for a health issue altogether. 73% say they search for medical advice online rather than going to the doctor’s office.

What are Their Expectations in Healthcare?

Looking at the success of digital innovation in other industries is directionally helpful for healthcare providers.

In the on-demand economy, Millennials don’t need a full-time doctor. They want an on-demand doctor for a specific ailment, now. They’re used to hailing an Uber two minutes from when they need it and ordering groceries to be delivered an hour before they begin cooking. They want to walk into a clinic and get immediate care or receive care from the convenience of their couch. Chatting online with a therapist as they sit idly and anxious in the subway is not an unusual practice, with BetterHelp showing success.

On-demand expectations go hand-in-hand with unbundled services. Rattling the TV and entertainment industry, Netflix and Disney Plus have proven the success of unbundled services. Healthcare providers should consider unbundling medical services and offering transparent pricing. Startups like LemonAid Health are doing just this by unbundling care down to a specific need, like a cold or birth control. Unbundling requires transparent and easy-to-understand pricing, which is often challenging in the current healthcare system. MDsave is tackling bundled procedures by offering a single, upfront price. Doctors are noticing that healthcare consumers are more informed, price-conscious, and prepared than ever before. Doctors might be apprehensive toward a cherry-picking approach to medical care, but meeting people where they are has value.

In the attention economy, Millennials won’t deal with laborious paperwork. They expect for the administrative process to be as digitized and streamlined as possible. Their busy ethos favors features like automatically-scheduled appointments. Accessing records and communicating with physicians online are table stakes. Generation Z, whose entire life has included the Internet, have lower standards for digital features than Millennials. Providers who fail to prioritize features like streamlining bills will fail to retain these patients.

In the self-care economy, healthcare is more than a doctor’s visit.

Healthcare is self-care. This includes gym, acupuncture, infrared saunas, astrology, skincare, and more. Millennials consider these activities as part of their healthcare spending, which ultimately uses dollars that would go toward doctor visits.

Venture capital firms are noticing. They’re banking on Millennials to open their wallets for these self-care practices in place of disrupting the traditional primary care doctor model. Venture capital dollars are investing in startups like Parsley Health and Kensho Health that market Eastern Medicine practices repackaged in a modernized Western bow.

Startups, like WTNH, are rebranding acupuncture — a practice that’s been around for 2,500 years.

What Does This Mean for Providers?

As Millennials take over to be the largest population, providers need to make changes to sustain Millennials in the long-term. Their demands for convenience and easy-to-use digital solutions represent an opportunity for healthcare providers to engage this demographic. The question is, are they willing to do so?

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