Sickness Empire vs. Wellness Marketplace

Jay Parkinson's blog post from a few weeks ago sprang from the notion that "brand tags", or words the public associated with your company, are really what your brand is. Mayo Clinic, for example, was brand tagged with Cancer and Health. Not shocking that consumers associate two opposing terms with Mayo. It turns out both describe a split in health care quite well. Is Health Care about Health, or is it about Disease?

I chose chiropractic school instead of medical school in large part because the DCs in my life were really teaching and living a healthy lifestyle. Some well-rounded practitioners are doing this today, and I consider myself proud to be their colleague. BUT, as much as our profession wants to identify with the Wellness, Holistic, Complimentary and Alternative Health models, consumers mostly brand us Pain Relief.

The prevailing sickness care model relies upon doctors seeing an ever increasing number of sick people in order to earn the same amount of money. Chiropractors have stepped up and joined that mainstream paradigm. The prime example is our hard won right of insurance participation. Many plans cover chiropractic treatment. For injury care. All specifically exclude preventitive care. You have 12 visits a year on your plan, you say? Read the fine print; it doesn't mean you get an adjustment once a month. No sickness, no payment.

Over the past 10 years, I've been backpedaling out of that paradigm. It feels a bit like re-inventing the wheel sometimes. My practice is still straddling the fence a bit between insurance covered care and consumer driven care. Check out Jay Parkinson's proposed model of wellness vs. sickness care. Long excerpt below, but here's my favorite bit:

"Wellness brands will arise and look and feel more like the Apple Store than an ER. Over 80% of people in America do not actually use $5,000 per year of healthcare, therefore, this is a market that will cater to 4 out of 5 people in America."

That's the majority of my practice! Those people who spend less than $5,000 a year on adjustments, yoga, pilates, massage, medical check ups, and feel great. Most have a mild to moderate chronic condition that is well managed when they stick to their heatlhy lifestyle. Sure, they'll get an infection or have an injury now and then, but they spend their money up front for resources and treatments that significantly increase their vitality and make them feel great.

Jay's proposed model...

"The sickness industry is rapidly becoming unaffordable. The wellness industry will replace it which I believe will lead to two different industries:

1. The wellness industry that caters to the consumer and is focused on maximizing your health for the first $5,000 per year you spend out of your own pocket. This industry will do everything it can to retain your business by keeping you well and out of the sickness industry. This will include management of acute problems (broken arms, sinusitis, etc) and chronic problems (depression, asthma, diabetes, etc). The goal of this new market will be to cost-effectively deliver efficient, affordable healthcare (for under $5,000 per year) to keep you out of the sickness industry. Because once you leave, it’s likely you won’t ever come back due to some expensive, chronic illness you’ve developed. They’ll want you back. They’ll cater to you. They’ll want to be found by you. This is the section of healthcare where we can innovate because it’s unregulated, cash-based, and deals with simple transactions. Wellness brands will arise and look and feel more like the Apple Store than an ER. Over 80% of people in America do not actually use $5,000 per year of healthcare, therefore, this is a market that will cater to 4 out of 5 people in America. It currently doesn’t exist simply because people haven’t known that it could exist and thrive against the traditional healthcare industry. But now that the traditional healthcare industry is essentially unaffordable to so many Americans, this wellness industry will disrupt much of what the sickness industry is currently doing badly.
2. Once you spend over $5,000 (or if you are covered by Medicaid) you will enter the sickness industry. That will continue to look and function the way it does— an ever-increasing money pit. As we’re witnessing, the industry is not able to be top-down regulated due to all the special interests chasing these massive profits.

That’s just a theory, but I think it’ll come true."

I second that!