Even though they're actually paying for access to thousands of medical providers across the country, most insured Americans stick to the neighborhood—and they're not all that loyal to their doctors, either.
According to a survey from Create and Brighton Health Plan Solutions, one-size-fits-all health plans just aren't cutting it for most people. In fact, the report finds that despite having access to national networks of medical providers, 71 percent of insured have not used a doctor in another state in the past year and 55 percent are willing to travel only 30 minutes or less to visit their doctor.
In addition to staying within their own states, only 34 percent have received care from more than one health system, a network of affiliated providers. The advantage to sticking within a single system and consistently receiving care from an integrated set of doctors, the report says, results in more personalized, higher-quality care, since patient health information can easily be shared between providers within that system. But traditional carriers aren't doing a good job of helping people build long-term, loyal relationships with their doctors.
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And about those long-term relationships: while 73 percent of respondents say they feel loyal to their primary care doctors—in fact, the majority say they feel more loyal to their doctors than to other service providers, including the person who cuts their hair, their vet and their babysitter—that's not borne out in their behavior.
When push comes to shove, respondents are more likely to recommend their favorite TV show than they are to recommend their primary care doctor, and 23 percent of them have switched their primary care doctor more than once in the past five years. That's a pretty high turnover rate between doctors and the patients who claim to be loyal to them.
In choosing health care, people want quality care at an affordable price, something that gets tougher every day. They don't want to choose between quality of care and affordability. And 86 percent of respondents say that when they first choose a doctor, they rate quality of services as the most important factor, followed closely by health plan coverage (85 percent) and cost of services (75 percent). When it comes to the doctor specifically, 87 percent of respondents say that quality of care provided is the most important thing, followed by cost of care (81 percent).
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