10 Ways Long COVID Has Crippled Healthcare Profitability

With COVID 19 fading into the clinical rearview mirror, the emphasis has now shifted to understanding the long-term health effects of the Pandemic. These impacts — often lumped together as ‘Long COVID’ — are frequently both unexpected and unpredictable. For many patients, they are also life-altering, and in some cases, life-threatening.

However, physicians and clinic managers may be unaware of a new brand of unexpected, life-altering, and potentially fatal Long COVID impacts revealed in recent studies.1 These are not clinical (e.g. medical) impacts, but clinic

impacts. Known as ‘Medical Practice Long COVID,’ they are Pandemic- induced changes so dramatic they can cripple your ability to profitably deliver healthcare, and even to survive long term if unchecked.

10 Ways Long COVID has Crippled Healthcare Profitability

Healthcare is No Longer Just Healthcare

The overarching Medical Practice Long COVID impact coming out of the pandemic is a surprising, almost seismic shift in patients’ perceptions of healthcare. No longer viewed in a purchase class by itself, your services

are now mainstreamed

into consumers’ overall consideration set, and compared against their experiences with other brands they love and trust.

They will no longer cut you slack for clunky systems and sub-par consumer experience just because you’re a medical clinic.

Like other purchases they

consider every day, they will simply move on to find the first-rate treatment they have come to expect.

We have identified nine additional Medical Practice Long COVID impacts that can each have a significant negative impact on your practice. But this surprising shift in consumer perception underpins them all.

1. HEALTHCARE AS A CONSUMER DECISION

Healthcare is now firv st and foremost a consumer purchase decision. The Patient Experience (Px) is now a subset of the Consumer Experience (Cx).

Like other Long COVID impacts, this one was unexpected. Such a major shift in this short time period is without precedent.

On the surface, it may sound like just an interesting cultural observation or water cooler conversation.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. The potential impact on your practice and profitability cannot

be overstated. The patient mindset has shifted, has arrived for the majority, and is here to stay. It’s a reality that is impacting your practice and your profitability today.

Simply stated, healthcare is now, more than ever, a consumer purchase decision.

In practical terms, here’s what it means for your practice: when shopping for healthcare, patients are now acting like consumers, and comparing options.

You are being compared to the Cx they have with other brands, many of whom pamper them online and go to great lengths to make their journey with them simple, easy, painless, fun, and personal.

They buy healthcare based on the entire experience as a consumer (Cx), not just what happens in the clinic visit. For example, recent research shows that even if they receive quality clinical care, patients will walk away and find another provider if:

• The online experience is clunky.²

• The payment experience is clunky or unavailable online.³

• The online scheduling experience is difficult or unavailable.

  Patients no longer feel the need to be loyal to a provider and endure these deficits. They have lots of other options. For the practice, the old days of “just being not annoying” is no longer enough. They truly are now consumer-patients, not patient-consumers.

  Most importantly, keep in mind that this goes beyond just a consumer satisfaction issue. Happier patients have always been preferred to not-so-happy patients. But in the new paradigm, you have happy patients and no patients. Ultimately, it becomes a revenue issue and a long-term survival issue, not a more or less annoyed patient issue.

  1. DIGITAL SURPASSES ALL OTHERS

     Digital now far surpasses all other forms of selecting and remaining loyal to a provider.

     The post-pandemic patient mindset has also shifted hard toward digital sources for selecting a provider, away from traditional professional or personal referrals and recommendations.⁴

     Most patients now choose healthcare providers based on online profile, ratings, and reviews.

     Specifically:

     • Patients rely on digital sources 3.1x more than provider referrals when choosing a new PCP— and 2x more than provider and personal referrals combined

     • Referrals from other providers is the fourth most popular choice.

• Even if you are online, and if reviews for the referring provider are less than stellar, or appear rigged or unauthentic, patients will move on.

• And if the information is not accurate and relevant, they will move on (referral leakage).

This is where the “at-least-we’re-not-annoying” attitude some practices take about their online presence is particularly dangerous. Consumer- patients are looking to be delighted with their online experience, like they are with many other vendors, not merely spared frustration.

1. GENUINE, TRUSTWORTHY, PERSONAL DIGITAL INTERACTIONS

   Your interactions, while moving digital, must be genuine and trustworthy. You must build your brand. And make it personal.

   Note that digital does not equate to impersonal. To the contrary, patients seeking a highly positive Cx still want a personalized relationship with brands they use — both online as well as in person.

   Positive Cx/digital experience is based on genuine interaction. Many practices get lost in the technology weeds and lose sight of the personal touch with their consumer-patients.

   The place to start is to first master the digital basics. This includes online profiles, reviews, and a comprehensive, robust online patient portal.

   Profiles should be professional, but friendly and approachable. Highlight the skills and services patients most need and appreciate. Reviews must be legitimate and trustworthy. Never try to game the review sites. Practice management software is available to manage online reviews as part of the overall system.

   Think of it as a 360-degree online experience touching every way the patient wants to interact with your practice. Whether its scheduling, messaging a provider, paying a bill, checking a lab, filling out onboarding documents, or an Rx refill, the experience should be simple, intuitive and efficient. And a smooth mobile experience is a must.

   This is not the time to worry about fancy AI, virtual reality, bots, etc. Master the digital basics and move from there.

   Personal touches from the practice can also go a long way toward maintaining a strong digital

   relationship. One idea: a provider could reach out to patients through social media and/or an internal email list following attendance at a convention: Show a picture of doctor and/or colleagues at the convention. “Attending this great convention to learn how to better serve you. Here are a few tips based on what I learned: Tip 1. Tip 2.”

2. CHRONIC

   LABOR SHORTAGES

   Like many other service-intensive businesses, healthcare continues to suffer from challenging labor shortages and resultant burnout that was exacerbated by COVID shutdowns. Scarcity of quality labor will continue to impact the ability to deliver a consistently positive patient consumer experience for the foreseeable future.

   Resolving this issue requires objectively rethinking the entire Cx delivery process, with an open mind toward new processes and technologies. The old manual and piecemeal approaches will no longer work.

3. CUSTOMIZABLE AUTOMATION ENSURES SUPERIOR CX

   Comprehensive and customizable automation systems are the only way to deliver superior Cx.

   Because of the major shifts previously discussed, capable integrated automation will be the only way to deliver consistently high quality Cx. One popular interim mindset has been, “Do more with less,” meaning squeeze more productivity out of the current manual or piecemeal processes with fewer staff. While there is always slack in any delivery system, pushing hard on this approach typically results in disappointing outcomes and damage to existing workforce morale.

   A leading healthcare consultant puts it this way: “You can’t do more with less if all departments and functions aren’t working in the same system so they can create efficiencies and synergies.”⁵

   Without integrated systems, if you are pushing people hard to do more with less, you are ultimately driving burnout and lower quality.

   Replacing the clunky handoffs, inefficient workflows, paper intake process, limited or no online payment options, etc. is no longer, a “we’ll-get-to-it-in-the-future” option. It is as crucial to your survival as writing scripts and ordering labs and images.

4. GENERATIONAL LINES BLUR DIGITALLY

5. PROVIDER REFERRALS HAVE LOST THEIR PUNCH

   Generational lines are disappearing in the digital space.

   Some practitioners maintain that young, digitally proficient consumer- patients make up a small portion of their patient population, and therefore the digital consumer trend has less impact on their practice.

   The flaw in this argument is assuming that these trends don’t apply to Boomers. Recent data shows just the opposite to be true. Boomers are highly active and proficient in managing their healthcare and have nearly caught up with Millennials in their preference for digital healthcare consumption.⁶

   In the pre-COVID era, providers could somewhat manage the quality-of-care delivery by referring to trusted providers who shared similar standards. A high percentage of patients would follow those referrals without questioning.

   Since COVID, for the first time, provider referrals have been surpassed by online search as a primary source for provider selection and are used 3x less frequently than all digital sources. Strong, integrated digital presence and integration among providers is essential to stay ahead of this trend.

6. CYBER THREATS CONTINUE TO RATCHET UP

   A recent troubling trend is the escalation of cyberattacks on smaller physician groups. Whereas hackers previously targeted larger healthcare systems, patient data has become so valuable that even smaller practices are now attractive hunting grounds.

   A study by cybersecurity firm Critical Insight reported that the number of attacks on physician groups rose from 2% of healthcare attacks in 2021 to 12% in 2022.⁷ Especially troubling is the rise in

   ransomware attacks. A recent investigation by Verizon found these attacks increased nearly 13% in 2022, more than the increase of the five previous years combined.⁸

   The biggest threat is patched-together systems that include business associates and vendors who create easy access points for hacks. Highly secure, cloud-based all-in- one practice automation systems offer the tightest security options for smaller groups at reasonable prices.

7. TELEMEDICINE IS NOW TABLE STAKES

   Experts estimate that the pandemic accelerated adoption of telehealth by at least a decade. Throughout the pandemic and after, these systems became more refined, streamlined and integrated into the mainstream of the EHR and clinic workflows.

   Today, telehealth is still important but is just one small piece of the consumer-patient’s evaluation. It’s an expected service and expected to work seamlessly. So, while it remains a key service, it rarely makes the top of the preference list.

8. MOBILE IS KING

The explosion in mobile online access in recent years has been truly breathtaking from a technology-shift standpoint. A growing

majority of interactions and transactions with clinics and providers are completed from a mobile device.

The new digital rule of thumb is optimize with

mobile in mind first. Your clinic’s smoothest and easiest interaction with consumer-patients in their digital world should be on their phones.

References

1 Consumer Experience in Healthcare Survey, 2023, PressGaney | 2 Ibid | ³ InstaMed Trends in Healthcare Payments Annual Report 2021 | ⁴ Consumer Experience in Healthcare Survey, 2023, PressGaney | 5 https://www. medicaleconomics.com/view/2024-private-practice-outlook | 6 Consumer Experience in Healthcare Survey, 2023, PressGaney | 7 https://cybersecurity.criticalinsight.com/healthcare-breach-report-h1-2022 | 8 https://www.verizon.com/ business/resources/reports/dbir/2022/summary-of-findings/

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