Answer

Introduction

Competition in within healthcare sector has led to improved quality of services provided. The stiff competition has been brought by the ever challenging state of health, drawing attention of key stakeholders in healthcare sector such as physicians, policymakers, patients, payers and professional healthcare administrators, to search for convenient way of solving the crisis. These challenges experienced by Americans are not special in anyway, since the rest of the world too is grappling with wrestling over similar state of healthcare such as increased medical service charge, pressure from aging population, overreliance on advanced but expensive technology in providing health services. This paper is organized into three sections: the first section discuses the five important stakeholders in healthcare sector and how they relate to each healthcare organization (Morrisey, 2013). Section two delves on roles of these stakeholders in healthcare organization. Finally, the last section discuses the impacts of five stakeholders mentioned above have on research and marketing in healthcare systems.

Key stakeholders in healthcare sector and how they fit in healthcare organizations

As aforementioned, key stakeholders, also known as 5Ps, in healthcare sector include professional healthcare administrators, patients, physicians, policymakers and payers. These players are important in any healthcare organization, thus the need to discuss how they relate to every health organization. Patients are in this case consumers, that is, recipients of services offered by physicians (Mukamel, 2013). Physicians are the medical experts who are specialized in treating patients. They offer services to patients which are either paid directly by patients themselves or catered by government or insurance companies. Professional healthcare administrators are individuals tasked with management responsibilities in healthcare sector. Payers on the other hand are organizations that help in settling bills of patients for the services rendered. For instance, health insurance from individuals accumulated overtime through monthly deduction, insurance from employer or government. Finally, policymakers are tasked with the responsibility of enacting laws and health polices that regulates on physicians’ conducts, services provided as well as type and amount of payment for the services obtained.

                In order to understand their relationship, it is important that one become acquainted with the types of healthcare organization. Healthcare organization is a composition of facilities, services provided as well as means of settling bills for the services rendered. With this in mind, there are generally five types of healthcare organizations. These include: – Preferred provider organizations PPO, Health Maintenance Organizations HMOs, Consumer-Driven health plans, Point-of-service plans, and Fee-for-service plans.

                Preferred provider organizations consist of large networks of physicians, clinics and hospital with the freedom to choose desired specialist. This kind of organization is generally preferred by individuals who detest restriction provided by other organization. For this reason, most patients prefer this kind of organization. Key stakeholders such as physicians also play important role by offering quality services to patient who need referrals (Ware, 2008). Professional health administrators have also partnered with payers such as health insurance companies to ensure that their patients get quality services at an affordable price. According to report from health insurance 2010, patients are required to pay a monthly deduction of $10 for premium services. Policymakers here regulate on service charge to ensure that patients are not over charged. This is made possible through the help of federal government which pass bills to regulate on charges. In addition, government can sometimes provide funds to this organization to subsidize on charges levied on patients.

                Health maintenance organizations on the other hand, have put restriction on patients with special treatment. Unlike in PPO where a patient decides on which specialist to attend to her, HMO schedule every specialist for the patient, living no room to choose. As a result, most of the clinicians in this organization are not bothered to improve their expertise since attending to patients are not decided on merits (Ware, 2008). This has led to poor relationship between patients and physicians as well as poor quality services offered. In addition, the premium for HMO coverage is slightly high than what other organization provides, making patients to prefer the former.

Roles played by the 5Ps in Healthcare marketing in health organizations

Competition in healthcare involves quality of services provided, service charge and level of technology used in service provision. Two elements that will help an organization beats its counterpart is quality of service and service charge. These two elements are basically determined by patients, payers, physicians, professional administrators and policymakers, with each playing a significant role. The difference in how services are provided and the type and amount paid for the services are what bring the difference in the competition. Patients critique the services offered by physicians which helps in improvement of the services. Feedback from patients is then used by policymakers to craft laws that will cater for patients’ demands. On the other hand, responses from patients are also used to evaluate skills of physicians in handling patients and further use that information to gauge their standards (Morrisey, 2013).

Impact of 5Ps on marketing potential of a healthcare organization

The five stakeholders in healthcare sector play a significant role in marketing of healthcare organizations identified above. In this section, I will discuss impact of each stakeholder on marketing potential of each healthcare. Payers such as insurance companies can impact negatively or positively on healthcare organizations. Every organization has its complete system of service delivery from mode of payments, physicians, type of services provided as well as terms of partnership that exist. The type of system organization determines the level of competitiveness of these organizations. For instance, premium charges for services offered by PPOs are slightly low compared to those of HMOs, hence many patients prefer PPO to HMOs. Payers of PPOs patients play great role in ensuring that they maintain customers through low charges (Mukamel B, 2013). Professional administrators and policymakers have also contributed to the patient-friendly environment experienced in most PPOs by establishing guidelines and regulation that ensure patients are attended to satisfactorily.

                Health organizations compete for competent physicians as well as reliable third party payers since these are the inputs that can generate quality service enough to attract customers (patients). So in a competition, health organizations will go for physicians with high skills in order to edge out their rivals in the market.

Conclusion

In conclusion, health marketing depends upon two important factors, quality of service and service charge. As in the case with preferred provider organization, health organizations need to work on how to improve quality of services provided by selectively recruiting and employing highly qualified physicians with experience to handle patients. This can be done by establishing a proper guideline for employment and promotion of medical experts as well as good leadership. In addition, health organizations should partner with genuine third party payers who would not overcharge their patients.