Inspiring A Higher Quality Of Care

Through Increased Competition in the Healthcare Industry

In our last post we highlighted a series of blog posts, that will focus on the upside of the increasing amount of competition in the healthcare industry. The changes started with MACRA and we are bound to see more, as CMS works to increase the quality of care provided in the United States, while driving down the cost. One way to do so, is to inspire competition – and let the market drive changes itself (like in many other industries).

How will Competition increase the quality of care provided?

Let’s think about it in terms of a tangible product, like a car. When there are only one or two car manufacturers in the market, there’s less choice and people often select the brand that’s closest to them physically, or because they know someone associated with that brand. These two major brands can afford to become stale or stagnant, and not focus on what will garner more customers. It’s similar with the major soft drink providers, who mainly advertise just to keep their current market share rather than to convert customers of the competing brand.

Now introduce two more options, and all of a sudden consumers have much more choice. Naturally, they tend to explore these new options and reconsider their purchasing decisions. If the new options provide a better quality product, the consumer is likely to shift their loyalty. These two original brands have an option – stay the course and risk losing their customers to their new competition, or changing their products to match. No one wants to go out of business, so this new competition effectively has uplifted the local market. 

Healthcare is no different

When there are only a handful of options to choose from, many patients will opt for the closest practice that is in their current network of coverage, regardless of quality of care, cost of that care or other factors. But, give that same patient additional options, within the same distance and their current provider now has competition, and risks losing that patient to another practice. In order to keep that patient, said practice will find ways to gain a competitive edge, often by increasing the quality of care – which is effectively customer service in the healthcare industry.

That’s just one physical location. This example can be extrapolated across a large swath of the State, or even country and have an impact on the quality of healthcare provided in America overall. Competition might sound negative at first, but if you prepare your practice and your patients through communication and increased quality of care, you are ripe to reap the benefits of a changing healthcare landscape.

The experts at Main Street Medical are here to help you navigate these changes, providing a better experience for your patients through front office staff training, better revenue cycle management which provides you with more revenue to make improvements in your equipment and hire staff, and to stay on top of the changes in healthcare like MACRA.

MAIN STREET MEDICAL CONSULTING       WWW.MSMEDCON.COM

441 JANE STREET, CARNEGIE, PA 15106               1-888-281-3512