Health service advertising to grow

In today's DTC Perspective, Bob Ehrlich made what I consider to be a prescient comment:
 
"While DTC for drugs and devices may be flat, what will grow is spending for health care service advertising. If we define DTC more broadly than pills and devices, we are entering a boom period for direct consumer marketing of services. Hospitals, doctors, diagnostic test centers, insurance companies, laboratories, mini clinics and genomic services will grow dramatically in the next five years in their spending on marketing. Like it or not, consumers will get less subsidy from employers for health spending. Higher deductibles and co-pays will force consumers to shop more carefully for their services. Service providers will need to sell their points of difference as consumers realize that they are paying their own way at least up to a deductible level that is $2500 or more."

Amidst all the controversy over Obamacare, companies are fighting rising healthcare costs by putting employees on private exchanges. Like the public exchanges, these entities offer low cost premiums for high deductible plans. Along with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), these efforts shift more of the burden of routine healthcare spending onto the customer, which may induce price competition, but which will also reduce demand. Providers may need to boost marketing to generate demand to counteract the trend.

For healthcare marketers, this may represent an opportunity, particularly as Obamacare leads to more consolidation on the provider side. Big hospitals, physician groups, and integrated health systems become big potential accounts for big media and agency holding companies.