The top objection to enrolling in the Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) is "I don't want to change my doctor."
🚩 Historical and marketplace context for why this is *the* #1 objection to joining PACE.
❓ Do you want to know which PACE organizations allow visits to the "old doctor?" Dm me
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Healthcare Messaging Changed in the 1980's
There was a lot of resistance from the health care industry to any legislation that was going to lower prices for consumers. And so all of the PR strategists came up with the idea of "let's get people afraid of losing choice over their doctor." And this was pounded into the American psyche through public relations, media relations, from all the big health insurance companies.
They equated lack of choice, right? This was their big talking point. Lack of choice is lack of freedom, and lack of freedom is un American. So they tapped into this whole idea that any legislation was going to be un American. And this has set the groundwork for the conversation that continues to this day.
Older adults are particularly susceptible to this messaging because as people go into their seventies and eighties, their world gets smaller in smaller because a lot of their peer group are passing away, and they might have health and mobility issues, especially in people served by PACE, mobility issues that keep them closer to home. One of the relationships they do have is with their doctor.
Regardless of if they see that doctor 15 minutes once a year, and the doctor is the most trusted role.
Is PACE Healthcare? Or is it a Social Program?
So people are bringing all of this when they come into PACE. And the first piece of information they encounter -- is the brochure, a presentation, a website, And it's a program. A lot of people think social services program because PACE doesn't often present a "first impression" as a health care plan.
There's a lot of cognitive dissonance and people get defensive, and they're going to respond.
Overcoming this Objection in PACE: 3 Ways
The #1 way is to be able to say, nope. You don't have to change your doctor. And there are PACE organizations that allow for visits to the primary care doctor after someone enrolls in pace after the 1 or 2 visits, that participant is so happy with the PACE care team. They don't want to go back and see their old doctor.
The 2nd way to break down this resistance is to have the candidate meet the doctor or nurse practitioner. Before they enroll on their tour. We're asking someone to give up a relationship. We should be able to bridge into the new relation We want to reduce uncertainty.
Then the 3rd best way is to embrace this resistance in the enrollment conversation. We customize the various ways to resolve this -- with discovery, curiosity, relationship building and a simple objections scripting framework -- in our Empathy Enrollment Training, and you are welcome to DM me, and we can talk about that.
Originally published on Linkedin as Objections to Changing Doctor in PACE November 2023.