Retail Health Care
The former CEO of AOL, Steve Case, is now running a company called Revolution Health, and I support his cause, however, I'm not sure I agree with his tactics.
He was on the Charlie Rose show awhile back, and spoke about his new company. He mentioned the concept of quick stop health care centers in Wal-Mart. How did he convince Wal-Mart to this idea? Why does he think Wal-Mart has anything to do with convenience? To me, Wal-Mart seems about as convenient as an emergency room. Furthermore, would you want to go shopping where there are sick people hanging out? Sure Wal-Mart has a pharmacy (I really don't like their advertisements showing animated pills dancing around the screen!), but they also have a ton of other stuff.
CVS on the other hand, with their strong pharmacy and super convenience, seems like a better choice to me. Like AOL, maybe Revolution Health is going after middle America. Speaking of which, CVS just had a big jump in same store sales in July compared to June 2006. Way to go CVS.
Anyway, my point about health care here is that it does need a better retail presence. There are many problems with the health care system, but a solution needs to start with improved patient / customer care. This is where retail concepts could help. Start by improving the look and feel of doctor's offices to match up with the brand of the health insurance plan, and link that up with a strong online resource system. Getting customer buy-in of a solution like this would be a helpful step towards electronic medical records systems.
If a doctor's office is linked with multiple insurance carriers, why can't the carriers share the wall and floor space with their branding? Many insurance plans are partnered anyway. Furthermore, emergency rooms should be stocked with alternative resources, so that people do not have to wait 20 hours to get checked out for something that is not an emergency, and end up costing the insurance company mucho dineiro.
He was on the Charlie Rose show awhile back, and spoke about his new company. He mentioned the concept of quick stop health care centers in Wal-Mart. How did he convince Wal-Mart to this idea? Why does he think Wal-Mart has anything to do with convenience? To me, Wal-Mart seems about as convenient as an emergency room. Furthermore, would you want to go shopping where there are sick people hanging out? Sure Wal-Mart has a pharmacy (I really don't like their advertisements showing animated pills dancing around the screen!), but they also have a ton of other stuff.
CVS on the other hand, with their strong pharmacy and super convenience, seems like a better choice to me. Like AOL, maybe Revolution Health is going after middle America. Speaking of which, CVS just had a big jump in same store sales in July compared to June 2006. Way to go CVS.
Anyway, my point about health care here is that it does need a better retail presence. There are many problems with the health care system, but a solution needs to start with improved patient / customer care. This is where retail concepts could help. Start by improving the look and feel of doctor's offices to match up with the brand of the health insurance plan, and link that up with a strong online resource system. Getting customer buy-in of a solution like this would be a helpful step towards electronic medical records systems.
If a doctor's office is linked with multiple insurance carriers, why can't the carriers share the wall and floor space with their branding? Many insurance plans are partnered anyway. Furthermore, emergency rooms should be stocked with alternative resources, so that people do not have to wait 20 hours to get checked out for something that is not an emergency, and end up costing the insurance company mucho dineiro.
posted by instoremarketer at 6:16 AM
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