The Revolution Begins
While we’ve touted the potential impact of Steve Case’s massive healthcare initiative, Revolution, the organization has yet to announce much. Now however, the company is promoting two new products, RevolutionHealth.com and Revolution Health Membership. And the long-term implications for hospitals, health systems and other providers could be profound.
According to a company press release, RevolutionHealth.com is “a free online service which will help families take action to manage their health care and achieve their healthy living goals.” The site will contain more than 125 free tools and services such as “Revolution Health Centers” (medical content from sources such as Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Harvard); Revolution Ratings (a tool that lets consumers rate their experience with doctors and other providers); and Revolution Circles (a social networking tool for communities of patients, caregivers and others). The site, which is not yet fully functional, will be adding tools over time.
Revolution Health Membership is a paid concierge service that provides members with answers to individual health questions, help in dealing with insurance, health risk testing and even appointment scheduling services. “We recognize that health care is complex and while a lot can be done to empower consumers via the Internet as we’re doing with RevolutionHealth.com, there are times when you just need somebody to talk to, who will be on your side and help you navigate the complexities of the health care system,” said Steve Case in the press release.
Those participating in the program in the first year will have their membership fees waived. (Pricing was not given in the press release, nor could we find it on the RevolutionHealth.com site.)But how revolutionary are these services? Without having tested the services yet ourselves, we will withhold immediate judgment.
To be sure, though, the potential exists for both RevolutionHealth.com and Revolution Health Membership to accelerate the nascent industry of patient advocacy to new heights.With the proliferation of consumer-driven healthcare coverage, individuals are being asked to shoulder more of the financial burden of their own healthcare. As they spend more of their own money for care, the average U.S. resident is going to use value determinations in making their healthcare decisions. Similar to other purchasing areas, consumers will rely on quality, experience, reputation and cost to make buying decisions. Given the vast amounts of information that will be available to consumers on the value of their healthcare options – and the variety of sources, including provider, payer, governmental and third party – it will be impossible or impractical for the average consumer to understand those choices and make an informed decision.
There is the potential for a layer of “information brokers” to emerge to serve as advocates for healthcare consumers, similar to the role investment brokers and financial planners play in the investment industry. Already, businesses exist to help consumers sort out their medical billing or to serve as a patient advocate, but none currently exist that can serve as objective arbiters of healthcare related information covering cost, quality, and experience for consumers. RevolutionHealth fits this description, and others such as WebMD are moving in this direction.
What does this mean for clinics, hospitals and health systems? Should the patient advocacy industry leap forward, healthcare marketers will have a powerful new audience to consider. These entities could become key drivers for consumer healthcare decisions, and it will be essential for provider marketers to craft strategies aimed at this new audience. Again, consider the financial investing industry. Investment vehicles such as mutual funds certainly market to the end investor (you and I), but also spend considerable energy and resources wooing the middle man – the broker. Could that reflect the future of healthcare marketing?Whether Revolution and other patient advocacy initiatives will truly launch a revolution or not, only time will tell. In the meantime, we’ll explore these new offerings from Revolution and others, and invite anyone who has had experience with these services to post their comments at our site.