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What Health Plans Need to Know About Millennial Customers

News  |  By HealthLeaders Media News  
   November 04, 2016

Data from a social network for physicians reveals that millennials are increasingly likely to challenge doctor recommendations and less likely to build relationships with physicians.

Consumers of all ages are finding fewer physicians to choose from on the health insurance exchanges. And when millennial customers do line up a doctor, they are changing the relationship.

Those are two conclusions from research by Sermo, a social network that bills itself as the "virtual doctors lounge" where physicians speak freely.

Sermo polled its network of U.S. physicians recently and found that 57% of physicians participate in health insurance plans offered in the federal or state exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, down from 61% who reported participating last year ahead of 2016 open enrollment.

The doctors are also talking about how millennials—the young people so eagerly sought by health plans now—are changing the traditional doctor/patient relationship, keeping their distance and working the system to better satisfy their needs.


49% Don't Understand Health Plan Costs


Chatter on the network suggests millennials are more likely to challenge doctor recommendations, more comfortable discussing healthcare costs, and less likely to build relationships with physicians.

The millennial generation usually is described as people born between 1980 and 2000, and they often are described as more self-centered and less ambitious than previous generations of Americans. But that's not how physicians describe them.

Doctors on the social network are more likely to say millennials are better at involving themselves in care decisions and questioning the costs of treatment. In other words, they're no pushovers.

Forty-five percent of doctors polled by Sermo said the top difference between millennial patients and others is that millennials are more likely to challenge treatment recommendations than other patients. An additional 16% identified millennials' cost-consciousness as the biggest differentiator between them and other generations.

Younger patients also don't go for the traditional relationship with their doctors.


Doctors cut costs by getting to know their patients


Booking one-off appointments appears to be a common habit of millennial patients, with 57% of physicians reporting that millennial patients are likely to seek a one-time appointment instead of developing a relationship with a physician.

Only 43% of physicians polled said their millennial patients return at the same rate as others.


Patient Skepticism Slows Healthcare Consumerism


When asked what other effects millennials might have on the healthcare system, respondents offered the following expectations:

  • 28% said they expected millennials to drive the increased use of telemedicine
  • 27% said millennials would spur the proliferation of walk-in clinic settings
  • 24% said millennials would boost online scheduling and extended hours
  • 11% said this group would drive greater transparency for out-of-pocket costs
  • 10% said they would hasten the use of easily portable electronic health records

Millennials tend to be more careful than most patients with their healthcare dollars. Fifty-four percent of the physicians reported their millennial patients were more up-front about asking for lower-cost alternatives than other patients.


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