Andy Neary warns that generational bias in healthcare plan design costs companies money. Baby Boomers trust doctors more and use care freely, while younger workers shop for price and quality. Leaders designing plans based on their own generation's habits end up with the wrong coverage for their workforce.
Chapters
Could generational bias be impacting the decision making in your organization? It's definitely impacting your healthcare budget. Today we have a workforce consisting of four, sometimes five different generations who all view healthcare differently. You see baby boomers, they trust their doctor, they trust the health care system. Whereas millennials, Gen Xers, and Nexters, not so much, see different generations, view healthcare with a different bias. Yet I see way too many decision makers designing a health plan for the workforce based on their own perceived bias of the health care system. For example, if you're a baby boomer, who's in charge of designing the health plan, and you're designing the plan based on your perceived bias, and you trust your doctor and you trust the health care system, you could be making a big mistake if your workforce is made up of millennials who are less loyal and willing to shop for price and quality. So the next time you find yourself in the middle of a big decision in your company, especially designing the health plan, you gotta throw out your generational bias, because it could be the missing ingredient you need for your company's culture and your bottom line. Until next time, bear down, focus on the target, and strike out the status quo.
