As patients are becoming used to quicker turn-around times in other retail industries, expectations regarding health care waiting times are rising. As PwC reports:
Heightened desire for “on-demand” healthcare in the form of telemedicine, mobile health, social media and retail clinics has fueled the move toward healthcare anywhere, anytime. Nearly one in four consumers surveyed by HRI said they had sought treatment at one of the nation’s 1,300 retail clinics in 2011.5 Since 2007, the use of retail clinics has gone up 74%, from 9.7% to 23.5%.
Payers will need to be able to adapt to more flexible payment models, while still ensuring that services are not fraudulent or wasteful.