Health Plans' Uninsured Sweet Spot
The recently uninsured -- the 29% of uninsured consumers who have been without health coverage for less than a year -- are almost two times more likely to be researching health insurance, compared with the more habitually uninsured. Plans should actively reach out to this cohort: Consumer Technographics® data shows that they are not only as health conscientious as their insured counterparts, but they are also in higher income brackets, compared with those who have lacked insurance for more than a year.

TI, 3M, And VeriSign's Rx For Drug Fraud
Is securing the drug supply chain possible without massively overhauling existing business models or integrating comprehensive data management systems? Texas Instruments, 3M, and VeriSign have developed a model that links RFID, digital signaling, and encryption to help drug manufacturers, retailers, and distributors create a secure model for drug authentication. As TAP Pharmaceutical Products is one of the two large pharma operations to begin evaluations of this solution, we believe that pharma should turn to authentication to secure supply chains over the short term.

Community Collaboration Advances UK Biotech
Despite record levels of venture capital pouring into biotech startups, access to information and expertise remains a serious hurdle for growth. To target this, MerseyBIO and Autonomy have teamed up to develop an online, collaborative workspace, esymbio. This virtual office space will offer personalized information delivery and foster a community among scientists, non-scientists, primary care physicians, and clinical patients -- certainly an approach worth emulating.

What Consumers Do When Health Costs Go Up
Rising healthcare costs do much more than lighten consumers' wallets: Consumers who report significant out-of-pocket expense increases are more than twice as likely to be dissatisfied with their health plan. But that's not all -- trust, loyalty, and feelings of advocacy wane as well. We recommend that plans take a number of steps to improve member satisfaction, including increasing the transparency of out-of-pocket expenses by developing strategies to expose contracted rates at providers' offices and price ranges for common claim types.

We are very interested in your feedback on our research. Do you have topics to recommend, data you would like to have, or technologies you want assessed? Drop me a line at bradholmes@forrester.com so we can connect.


Brad Holmes
VP and Practice Leader,
Healthcare and Life Sciences

Research Referenced In This Issue Community Collaboration Advances UK Biotech (37562) Health Plans' Uninsured Sweet Spot (37420) TI, 3M, And VeriSign's Rx For Drug Fraud (37569) What Consumers Do When Health Costs Go Up (37273)

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