health tips

The eye rolls commence from across the industry at the sight of the headline with everyone thinking ; I have a marketing plan. We are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media channels. We even have the annual wellness calendar telling us when it’s time to be doing things.   And on and on. I don’t know about you, but I consider myself a healthcare consumer. So, what has this got to do with anything in the headline? A lot. To the consumer, it’s all random noise that is not connected. And it is random in part because there is no sustainable or continuous market presence. For example, the other day, I received a direct mail newsletter from a hospital. Well, saying “I received” is probably misleading. Whomever the person that lives here named Resident is the one who received the mail. It was the first time I had heard from that provider in years. Random. Out of the blue comes a direct mail piece. Which, by the way, though nicely produced, did not engage me in any meaning...

I always used to say that nothing is new in healthcare. It’s been done somewhere, someplace already in the world, or is just a recycled strategy prettied up to look like the present. In many ways, hospitals and health systems are like the teams of the NFL, the ultimate copy-cat league. When one or two teams have success with the strategy, tactics, and game planning, the rest of the league follows to varying degrees, same with hospitals, health systems, and other medical providers. The above statement is not, by any means, a slam. It just is what it is. This observation on my part comes from over 30 years of working in the healthcare industry. When you still see hospital marketing in 2020 as I did in the 1990s, it’s a “come on man” moment for me. Things are "a-changing". This time, however, the change feels real. The changing healthcare landscape feels different. And the change is not being driven by hospitals, health systems, or other medical providers, but by the government,...

I had the great fortune to interviewed by Chris Boyer and Reed Smith, MBA at Touch Point Media , for their healthcare podcast  TP157 – The Pursuit of Price Transparency in Healthcare . The topic was price transparency. In the 60-minute podcast, Chris and Reed explore the current regulatory efforts at forcing price transparency change providing excellent context and content.  Then comes the interview on how from a strategic marketing viewpoint, how hospitals and health systems need to get ready now, based on my LinkedIn post:    Hospital Price Transparency Equals Accountability and Healthcare Price Wars. Getting ready Starts Now – Update . As price transparency gains momentum in the provider space, namely hospitals and health systems, the time to get ready is now.  A complicated issue, the fact remains hospital and health system price transparency are not an issue of if, but when. Just click on the title to access the podcast. The podcast TP157 – The Pursuit of...