If anyone doubted that money was tight …

May 28, 2009 – 1:28 pm by Joshua Slatko

… some poll numbers from the CME provider Pri-Med (pri-med.com) show that the economic squeeze has significantly altered the behavior of both doctors and patients. In a survey of 473 clinicians that the company completed May 21, Pri-Med found that:

- 90% of clinicians polled have seen changes In patient behaviors

- 95% have changed their own behaviors

- 88% are seeing changes to patients’ appointment behaviors (e.g., increased cancellations, refusals of tests or screening procedures)

- 70% are hearing patients increasingly request generic or OTC alternatives for prescribed medications

- 68% have noticed increases in non-compliant behaviors related to medication usage among their patients

- More than 50% are seeing changes patients’ payment such as increased delinquencies or requests for payment plans 

On the physician side, Pri-Med found that doctors are spending more time with patients at the point of care discussing prescription alternatives or the importance of compliance and prevention. They are also increasingly investigating lower cost treatment options and formulary specifics to help out their patients. And more than three quarters of clinicians are making changes to how they operate their practice, including taking steps to minimize cancellations, expanding payment options, and offering online or phone-based consultations. 

With the stumbling economy making patient compliance all the more challenging, a number of healthcare ad agencies are focusing efforts on behavioral science – the science of figuring out why people behave the way they do; and, in this case, why they are noncompliant and how to change that behavior. In June’s issue of Med Ad News, we will be taking a look at the use of behavioral science to encourage compliance and some of the strategies that behavioral science-focused agencies are using.

Researching behavioral science made me feel like I was back in college – the folks practicing it are very smart, and many have advanced degrees in things like psychometrics. They speak the language of academia, of psychology and sociology and anthropology, not so much the buzzwords of marketing that we hear so frequently. Simply producing materials for patients is not enough for a behavioral scientist; the materials must be crafted, based on a scientifically verified hypothesis of behavior, for maximum impact and response from a given group of patients. “Behavioral science tells us that information alone is not enough to change behavior,” Alyson Connor of MicroMass Communications Inc. (micromass.com) told me. “If it was, we’d all be skinny, nobody would eat cheeseburgers and French fries or smoke.”

Tags: behavioral science, compliance, Economy, Pri-Med