[Ebook PDF] Essentials of Health Care Marketing, 4th Edition

New Fifth Edition of Essentials of Health Care Marketing coming in March 2021. Essentials of Health Care Marketing, Fourth Edition will provide your students with a foundational knowledge of the principles of marketing and their particular application in health care. Moreover, the text offers a perspective on how these principles must shift in response to the changing environmental forces that are unique to this market.

PREFACE
Few industries are as dynamic as health care. Regulation, technological changes, mergers, changes in reimbursement—all impact the environment in which marketing strategy must be formulated.
Health care accounts for a significant proportion of the U.S. economy in such a way that the stakeholders whom it affects all comprise segments on which marketers must be focused in terms of
planning and assessing the changing trends and forces that affect these varying groups. It is the ever-evolving nature of this industry or profession (depending upon who is discussing health care)
that makes marketing within this field both challenging and interesting. Consumers are facing new health care plans and are more engaged because they are interacting through social media to seek
out information on health care and clinical alternatives; consumers also interact with other individuals regarding their health care experiences with providers and treatment alternatives. These influences of the environmental forces and the marketplace require greater sophistication and precision in the marketing strategies developed by health care organizations today.
Given health care’s large percentage of the gross domestic product; the concerns of price, value, and transparency with regard to that cost; and the quality received for the dollars paid for that
service, these concerns are ever more central to stakeholders. And, these issues are central to marketing in an era in which technology allows any customer group to access information regarding
these dimensions about a health care organization.
Health care marketing today is increasingly affected by two major issues that are reflected in this text and are foremost in organizational strategy, whether it is a provider organization, pharmaceutical company, or third-party payer. First, there is the ever-increasing impact of technology. As briefly mentioned, technology places more information in the hands of consumers and patients,
as it most certainly does for clinicians, with the use of electronic medical records. Second, there is the dramatic shift in population health management with accountable care systems that are
rewarded for the health of a patient population and the efficiency of the care delivered. This paradigm shift in the health care system has dramatic implications certainly for care management but
equally important for the marketing challenges this environment represents. Successful organizations in an accountable care era must be the Amazon. Coms of the health care world.
There may be no more interesting field in which to be a manager than that of health care. Two factors allow one to make such a statement. First, health care is the most important service dealing
with people’s lives and well-being. Second, health care is always changing and evolving, affected by a myriad of forces, and the manager is not always in control when attempting to craft a strategy
for the organization. This rapidly changing world with its new, disruptive technologies and competing service delivery models has demanded a new edition of this text.
The health care marketing field has long passed the time of debate as to whether marketing is appropriate within this setting. However, as discussed within the text, some tactics, such as whether
salespeople should call on physicians or the role of direct-to-consumer advertising, are being
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reexamined today. The reality is that marketing as a discipline has evolved over the past 40 years to be a core functional area in most major health care organizations. In this revised edition of the
text, the need for utilizing marketing approaches in an era of health care reform and accountable care organizations requires capturing patient loyalty. And, with the greater utilization of data mining to identify the market segments that more heavily use and need clinical intervention, a greater integration of marketing principles is needed in order to achieve better clinical outcomes.
Health care marketing today is a data- and technology-driven enterprise. Personal sales strategies increasingly use e-visits, and more sophisticated promotional plans use social media approaches
because market research utilizes a different approach to analyzing consumer responses on social media platforms. As this revised edition of the text underscores, no element of the marketing mix
is unaffected by dramatic changes in technology, data, health care restructuring, and the competitive landscape. All of these factors require the essential elements of marketing to be refined and
reshaped in today’s new environment