This story comes to us from the New York Times and follows similar lines as our previous commodity v. product discussion.
The story looks at health clinics that, in the face of rising costs and pending reform, are refocusing their efforts on the needs of their patients despite the status quo. Rather than starting with a focus on the typical urgent care assembly line-style service we’ve all come to know and love, churning out patients as timely and cost-efficiently as possible, these clinics are approaching heath care from atypical angles. Patients calling doctors on their cell phones? Monthly service fees?
The point here isn’t about the health care industry. It’s about your business. Your guests. How are their needs changing, and how can you look at the product/service you provide, not the commodity that you sell, and realign it to better fit your market’s needs?
Mr. Martin said he spent $40 for the resulting prescription but the rest was covered by a monthly fee he pays Dr. Sacks. “A weekend visit to the E.R. would have easily cost $1,000,” he said.
Dr. Sacks charges patients a direct monthly fee of $54 to $129 based on age, and she doesn’t take insurance. Her office calls its philosophy “direct practice” because it’s a direct contract between doctor and patient. But she advises patients to obtain insurance plans to cover large, unexpected health costs like those to treat cancer or a heart attack.
If All Doctors Had More Time to Listen – NYTimes.com.
