Late last year, the Healthcare Market Inquiry released a report on information in healthcare following an online survey and focus groups.
The full summary of their findings is available here.
Among the report’s findings was this statement: “Associations that come to mind when thinking about ‘private hospitals’ for most participants were positive across all focus groups. ‘Quality service’ was the most prominent theme, which was sub-divided into ‘medical service’ (i.e. quality of medical care and technology) and ‘non- medical services’ (i.e. hospitality, individualised attention). This was true for private out-of- hospital healthcare as well.”
The report notes that there were some variances between respondents to the online survey and the focus groups in some aspects:
- Online respondents stated that they had sufficient information to make medical aid purchases but focus groups pointed to more complexity in this same activity;
- Online respondents claimed they had sufficient information on care and costs of care from doctors and hospitals while the focus groups had an issue about when the information is given.
- Medical aid brokers were considered useful in deciphering which medical aids to purchase but focus groups pointed out that many did not engage with medical aid brokers as they purchased their cover through employers; some did not who their corporate broker was.
It seems clear that the private healthcare industry does provide a great deal of useful information but a residual challenge is to make that information more understandable and more readily available.