This article first appeared on MediaPost.
As consumers take on an ever-greater burden for their own healthcare costs in the form of rising deductibles, copays and premiums, they have more buying power to choose where, when and how to purchase insurance and healthcare services. In order to enable consumers to make more informed, active healthcare choices, marketers need to get to know them better by segmenting according to needs and wants, not demographics.
This article originally appeared on MediaPost.
Any woman who’s tried to learn how much a surgery, test or procedure will cost for herself or a family member knows it’s almost impossible to shop for healthcare in America on price and quality. Increased regulation has fallen short of its promise to make it easier to determine what consumers pay. But efforts continue: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently changed the rules about how hospitals must share pricing information. Starting January 1, 2019, hospitals will be required to publish their standard charges on the internet.