“Voice-of-The-Consumer”: Do Consumers really care about their medical records?

I started Mpowered Health a few years ago with a mission to empower the people of the United States to take control of their healthcare. Core to this mission was the idea of a platform that would showcase the voice of the consumer. A platform where consumers could freely express their opinions with their clicks and their wallets. 

We are delighted to launch the “Voice of the Consumer” series where we will share insights from our actual consumer behavior. We hope to debunk some myths that have long held this industry back and perhaps reinforce other theses that can propel us forward. 

When I started Mpowered Health, I heard a lot of skepticism about the app being able to get enough engaged consumers just based on the convenience of collecting their medical records. After all, there were thousands of healthcare apps (350K+ to be more precise) in the country, many of them addressing more severe problems than collecting health records. If most of them were not able to prove consumer engagement at scale, why would we be any different? 

So we did the only rational thing to do - we asked more than 600 Mpowered Health users in Feb 2023 about what was important to them in their healthcare experiences and what they hoped the app would provide. 

Of the 600+ users surveyed, 3 out of 4 users indicated that getting all their health records from multiple health plans and health systems was important to them. Mpowered Health has been asking its consumers similar questions for several months now and the answers are consistent. Nearly 75% of the users download the app just to get their records, even though the app does more than just download records. This flies in the face of the argument that people’s health records have always been available via member or patient portals, so people would not use another app just to do the same thing. The key difference is that with the Mpowered Health app, the consumers own their health records which go with them wherever they go. 

Transparency leads to knowledge. Knowledge is power. Taking charge of your healthcare starts with taking charge of your health information first. You then have better insights to make healthcare decisions that are best for you and your family. This is why Mpowered Health is a disruptor.  

Another data point for us to consider – In an industry where healthcare organizations spend anywhere from $50 - $1000 to acquire a consumer, our “cost of consumer acquisition” (CAC) is a fraction of the lowest spend and still falling. I highlight this because it affirms what we have always known - when consumers have a long pent-up need, they will readily adopt solutions that address that need. 

We spent the last year connecting to more than 2000 health plans and health systems, with plans to connect to 15000 organizations in the coming months. To put this in context, nearly 250 million people in the United States will be able to access their health records. Even as we roll out these Patient Access API connections that bring consumers closer to their health records, we continue to get requests from people to add more organizations to our network. We hear the consumer’s delight and surprise when a connection works and they see their records immediately. Of course, we have also heard from irritated consumers when one or more of these connections don’t work as expected. This only reinforces my belief that we at Mpowered Health are doing valuable work that will benefit the people of the United States.

We hope you found this blog useful or maybe just mildly interesting. If you did, please watch out for our next article in the “Voice-Of-The-Consumer” series. We will look at “Cash Pay” Healthcare in America.

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