Consumerism: 2011 Industry Insiders Perspective
by Clive Riddle, March 18, 2011
A Consumerism e-poll, involving three brief questions, was conducted in conjunction with the recently concluded 10th Annual Consumerism Web Summit. While questions in the e-poll have changed over the years, the current survey has some recent historical basis for comparison.
Survey respondents were asked the same questions from 2008 - 2011 regarding ranking typical components of consumerism, and their perspective as a respondent. Respondents were also asked in 2010 and 2011, to what degree the success of health care consumerism initiatives depend upon provisions of health care reform.
Below are summary findings from the e-poll. As you can see, overall rankings of these components of consumerism haven’t really shifted from 2008-2011. However, insiders do feel the future success of consumerism initiatives is much less dependent upon health care reform, then they felt a year ago.
1. Please numerically rank these typical components of Consumerism according to their value from your perspective.
(Rank 1 through 5 with 1 = highest value and 5=lowest value, and only use each ranking once; i.e. only rate one item a 1, one item a 2, etc.)
| 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | |
| Mean | Mean | Mean | Mean | |
| Price and Quality Transparency | 1.76 | 1.85 | 2.00 | 1.83 |
| Wellness Incentive Programs | 2.86 | 3.03 | 2.65 | 2.86 |
| Account Based Plans (HSA/HRA/FSA) | 2.90 | 3.06 | 3.08 | 2.97 |
| Web Based Consumer Patient Health Records | 3.53 | 3.35 | 3.70 | 3.63 |
| Retail Medicine (Convenient Care, etc) | 3.57 | 3.69 | 3.57 | 3.71 |
| 2011 | 2011 | |
| Median | Mode | |
| Price and Quality Transparency | 1 | 1 |
| Wellness Incentive Programs | 3 | 2 |
| Account Based Plans (HSA/HRA/FSA) | 3 | 2 |
| Web Based Consumer Patient Health Records | 4 | 4 |
| Retail Medicine (Convenient Care, etc) | 4 | 5 |
2. To what degree are the success of health care consumerism initiatives dependent upon provisions of the Affordable Care Act? (in 2010, the question was phrased: "…dependent upon the outcome of any impending health care reform? “)
| 2011 | 2010 | |
| Highly dependent | 21.2% | 36.4% |
| Somewhat dependent | 47.7% | 41.2% |
| Not very dependent | 31.1% | 22.5% |
3. My perspective is as a:
| 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | |
| Purchaser (Health Plan, Employer, TPA, Agent, PBM) | 37.1% | 43.4% | 30.6% | 37.9% |
| Provider (Hospital, Physician, Pharmaceutical, Other Providers) | 34.4% | 24.0% | 27.1% | 36.2% |
| Vendor/Other (Vendors, Consultants, Institutions, Gov., All Other) | 28.5% | 31.8% | 42.4% | 25.9% |
n = 154 for 2011, 189 for 2010, 96 for 2009, 59 for 2008
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Reader Comments (1)
Do you have enough data to show the answers to #1 segmented by the perspectives in #3?