Go fund yourself: health takes a page out of the retail book

At the HLTH (pronounced health) conference in Las Vegas, Nomi Health has a message for the industry; Go fund yourself. The marketing campaign highlights how health care should be more transparent about pricing and provide easy access to high-quality care for all Americans, comparing the experience to how retailers serve their customer markets.

Healthcare users forced to navigate through a complex process

Dramatically, Nomi Health created a marketing campaign called Go Fund Yourself (GFY) with cheeky videos, signage, a huge marquee above CVS on the Las Vegas Strip where the conference is being held and the website Gofundyourselfamerica.com. The campaign was produced to show an example of what everyone hates about America’s healthcare system, including long wait times, self-funded services not covered by healthcare providers, a complex system for getting confusing care and pricing systems.

The GFY marketing campaign highlights that in 2021, about $650 million, or about a third of all GoFundMe funds, went to medical campaigns, and 22% of American adults said they donated to them . “With Go Fund Yourself, we’ve reversed the script from traditional health messages, which are about as dry as two-week-old bread,” commented Anthony Modano, Chief Marketing Officer of Nomi Health.

The conference is a great way to address a provocative topic among many prominent attendees whose goal is to accelerate innovation in healthcare. But this isn’t just an initiative for existing healthcare providers; Retailers are also trying to get into the law to improve the current system.

Healthcare learns from retail

Major retailers and health technology companies like Nomi Health want to improve access to high quality yet affordable healthcare with transparent pricing. If the healthcare industry operated more like a consumer-facing retailer, providers would have to radically change the way they meet patient needs, starting with being transparent about the cost of their services.

Walmart recognized the need to provide easy access and transparent pricing to quality health care for all Americans, especially those in underserved communities. To that end, Walmart Health was launched in 2019 to provide essential health center services to local customers, regardless of their insurance status. Last year, Walmart
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Health has expanded its services to include virtual appointments. With Walmart’s deep footprint across the country and 90% of Americans living within 10 miles of a Walmart, this has positioned the company to become one of the largest healthcare providers. The Company’s Care Clinic concept offers services such as primary and urgent care, laboratories, x-rays and diagnostics, behavioral health, dentistry, optometry and hearing services in one facility. The company has clinics in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Texas.

Amazon
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plans to extend its scope to the health sector. For $3.9 billion, the internet juggernaut recently acquired One Medical, an American primary care organization whose mission is to make quality healthcare more affordable, accessible and enjoyable through a seamless mix of healthcare services. in person, digital and virtual. “The acquisition of One Medical is part of Amazon’s goal to reinvent healthcare,” said Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services. “We love to invent to make what should be easy easier, and we want to be one of the companies that will help dramatically improve the healthcare experience for years to come.”

Health care is complex and secret

Retailers and healthcare leaders agree that the current healthcare system needs an overhaul. “It is generally recognized that the health industry is really the industry of patient care. For various historical and political reasons, the incentives within the system have become terribly misaligned over time,” said Edward Bergmark, founder and former CEO of Optum, the health services wing of United Healthcare, North America’s largest health insurance company. Bergmark believes the misaligned incentives have led to a confusing, byzantine system that is incomprehensible to the majority of users and difficult and time-consuming to navigate even for the most “GFY’s media spot points straight in the eye at America’s industrial complex of health and calls for a better way forward. It’s a real conversation starter,” Bergmark said.

“Running healthcare inflation and Pandora’s box pricing structure are hitting Americans in their wallets, and it’s only getting worse,” observed Mark Newman, co-founder and CEO of Nomi Health. “The system as a whole needs to hit the reset button, and every major player needs to seriously address the problem of runaway healthcare costs. is not sustainable in the long term.

Modano explained how Nomi Health is taking a page out of the retail communications playbook and telling consumers, “‘This healthcare system that you have to navigate – it’s really messed up – but it doesn’t have to be so be it. We can all make health care better, and it starts with an honest conversation about how awful the current system is to most consumers. The GFY campaign hopes to break through and open the door to start an honest conversation about the current healthcare system. The GFY campaign also raises money for the Health Well Foundation, helping underinsured people afford essential medical treatment.