INBW24: Are Patients Consumers?

Are Patients Consumers? A Definitional Deep Dive (INBW24)

"It Is Tough to Be a Consumer When You Don't Have the Information You Need to Be One." Episode INBW24.

Are patients consumers? Literally, by Webster's definitions, yes — a consumer is a person who uses or pays for something, and patients use and sometimes pay for health care. But the literal answer isn't the interesting one. In this episode, Stacey Richter digs into why the "consumer metaphor" in health care both illuminates and obscures what patients actually need, and why the question itself may be more useful than any answer to it.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ Why the literal, dictionary answer to "are patients consumers?" is yes — and why that answer isn't very useful

✅ How the "consumer metaphor" can erode physician professionalism and why some see it as a problematic way to talk about patient care

✅ Why patients are, in a meaningful sense, "basically incapable of achieving health care consumer status" in the current system — because being a good consumer requires information that patients often don't have

✅ Practical tips for patients who want to be better health care consumers anyway: being suspicious, getting second and third opinions from subspecialists, and more

WHY THIS MATTERS

Whether you call patients "consumers" shapes how the entire system treats them — as informed shoppers who should bear responsibility for their choices, or as people navigating a system that rarely gives them the information they'd need to shop well. Getting this framing right matters for anyone designing benefits, communications, or care navigation aimed at patients.

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

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00:00 Introduction.

02:32 Why patients are not consumers.

02:41 A better way to define consumer.

03:15 When "patients are not consumers" is even more correct.

03:40 Where the definition of consumer starts to devolve or evolve.

04:17 The definition of consumer according to an article by The Hastings Center.

05:01 The "consumer metaphor" and eroding physician professionalism.

05:26 The problematic points at demonizing the consumer patient.

06:36 EP205 with Maya Dusenbery.

08:59 How "patient" may not be the best way to define our goals for the patient experience.

10:34 "It is tough to be a consumer when you don't have the information that you need to be one."

13:08 The paradox: Patients are not, and also are, consumers.

13:31 "The question itself is the answer."

13:41 "Patients … are basically incapable of achieving health care consumer status in this country today."

13:57 Things to consider for those who don't think patients should try to be consumers.

15:21 "If you're a patient … do the best you can to be a good health care consumer."

15:59 Tips for being a good health care consumer.

16:30 Articles on how to be a good consumer online.

17:00 "It pays to be suspicious."

17:15 Get second, third, and fourth opinions from subspecialists.