Are a lot of patients skipping medical care ?
The rising cost of gas is putting an extensive dent in the economy and is hurting a lot of people. People are not only putting off regular visits to their doctors, in some cases they are not going to their doctors when there is something seriously wrong. Take this physicians account of one patient;
A patient quit smoking so he could afford gas for the 40 mile commute to work in a packaging plant. He has been living paycheck to paycheck for years and his rent just went up. I was glad that something finally motivated him to stop smoking.
The bad news was that he came to the office with severe pneumonia two days after refusing to let an E.R. doctor admit him to the hospital. My patient was afraid of the expense and all the time he would go without pay from work.
To make matters worse, he didn't fill the antibiotic prescription he was given either. The $50 co-payment was unaffordable, he said. This is a case when an insurer would have been better off picking up the antibiotic tab to avoid a larger expense. But there's no easy way for a doctor to override a plan's co-pay or to let an insurer know its rules are about to make something very expensive happen.
When the patient came to see me, his condition had deteriorated. I persuaded him to let me admit him to the local hospital. He was in such bad shape that he was soon transferred to the ICU of a large medical center. His care will end up costing tens of thousands of dollars.
What percentage of patients are skipping medical care and how will this trend effect current DTC ads? My guess is that market research organizations are scrambling right now to get that information but most pharma marketers already know that it’s a lot.
Marketers have to be able to put themselves in their customers mind and right now the customers mind is occupied with $4.00 gas and trying to stay employed. I believe that the last thing a lot of people want to do now is to go to their doctor to get more potentially bad news and you can forget trying new products right now. When times are bad people stay with what they KNOW and what makes them feel comfortable. Now is the time for pharma to step up campaigns on early detection of conditions and assistance in paying for medications. Now is the time for pharma to show that they care more about patients health than selling products. There is a huge opportunity to engage patients to get them to see their doctors but it will require a multi-channel effort and new marketing. Already I can hear someone saying “what’s the ROI”...and that is at the root of the problem with pharma today.