The pendulum in health care continues to swing from paternalism to consumerism. Consumer-driven health plans have all but replaced HMOs. Health incentives programs are as ubiquitous as grocery store weekly circulars. And now employees and individuals will start shopping for their health benefits in public and private health marketplaces.
The consumerization of health care is driving the dynamics of the retail world in an industry largely naïve of the shopping experience. This shift presents the opportunity to apply the hard-earned lessons of consumer retail to the new health benefit exchanges as it relates to selling and engaging employees in benefit decisions.
