Millennials give up their primary care physicians in exchange for quick and less expensive alternatives

Anyone who has sought out a primary care physician and all associated insurance groups knows what it can be.

Generation Y members silently observed what their parents had to undergo with health care and decided that they did not want any part.

Quickly becoming the demographic group that the business world absolutely must follow, the millennium segment, with 83 million people, has become the largest generation in America. Their preference for convenience, connectivity, price transparency, and consumption patterns is forcing the retail sector to rethink many of the traditional offerings it offers customers.

According to Kaiser Health News, millennia seem to appreciate what they see in pharmacy clinics and emergency care centers that can meet their needs when they need them. The incubation of virtual health care also has its ear, because it offers the advantage of being able to communicate with a health professional anywhere, anytime, without having to go physically to the doctor.

The question of digital convenience is deeply affecting the world of Millennials. Studies reveal that Millennials' women spend 200% more time than other users on digital health and fitness apps – a step not to be lost on CVS, which has just launched the integration to his MinuteClinic visits via a mobile application.

A generation change

A Kaiser Healthcare Tracking survey of 1,200 randomly selected adults found that 26% of respondents had no primary health care provider and that the potential health care consumer was young, almost double that figure.

"There is a generation change," said internist Ateev Mehrotra, an associate professor in the health policy department at Harvard Medical School, in an article in the Chicago Tribune.

"These trends are more evident in the millennia, but they are not unique to them, I think people's expectations have changed. [is prized] in almost every aspect of our lives ", purchases at online banking.

The health concerns of the millennial generation are different from other generations.

"About 77% of Millennials in the US have rated their overall health as excellent or good, with depression, excess weight, and anxiety disorders among the most common health problems among millennials," according to Statista.

"On average, over a third of millennials do physical exercise two or three days a week for at least 30 minutes, but 24% still smoke cigarettes, compared to 10% of X generations and 13% of baby boomers. .

It's a new day for everyone

Visits to PCPs have been on a slide for more than two decades and the number of primary care physicians is also declining. According to VeryWell Health, there are about 14,000 primary care physicians outnumbering the number of people who need them – a gap according to their research that is projected to increase from 25,000 to 30,000 by 2025.

Consolidation is also likely to fuel the trend. With CVS and Wal-Mart both looking for health insurance partners, as well as the recent merger of Cigna and ExpressScripts, patients may not have a say in where to go for treatment. .

Gerald Anderson, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ConsumerAffairs last November that Aetna's policyholders may be required to make greater use of Minute clinics if their proposed merger with CVS was approved.

Although Mr. Anderson believes Aetna would use CVS in-store clinics to provide services directly to Aetna's policyholders, the jury still did not choose whether it would be a transformational agreement imitated by Aetna. other actors in the sector. But he admits that it's a possibility.

"We are already seeing the merger of hospitals and insurance companies," Anderson said. "Everyone is trying to get fatter and when they get fat, they almost always become more expensive."