With increasing access to their own health data, one C-suite executive believes consumers will become more responsible for their healthcare needs rather than turning to their providers for answers.
According to Jeff Margolis, chairman and CEO of Welltok, patients are increasingly taking their health needs into their own hands. He pointed to the fact that more and more individuals are choosing rideshare companies like Uber or Lyft in the event of an emergency rather than relying on ambulances because rideshares often end up being the cheaper option. Better access to information about health issues like fitness, nutrition and stress also allows patients to dictate their own health journey rather than relying on providers to guide them toward living a healthier lifestyle, Mr. Margolis said in an interview with Becker's Hospital Review.
"One of the things we really want to think about is the concept of consumers becoming the directly responsible individual. We've spent a lot of time and many decades where the general thought trend has been that we need to give providers — mostly doctors — the information they need to manage the health of their patients. With an increasing burden of the actual cost of healthcare on individual consumers or on families, and the increasing ability to move information about programs like fitness, nutrition, stress, financial, directly toward the consumer, I think we'll start to see a mentality where the consumer becomes more accountable and responsible for managing many aspects of their health."
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