The Trust Deficit—What Does It Mean for Health Care?

The level of public trust in all industries fell or stayed flat. Of particular note to Health Populi readers is that trust in pharmaceutical companies fell from 61% of people believing the industry “does what is right” in 2011 to 56% in 2012. This was the largest percentage point drop across all 11 industries surveyed...

..Edelman’s prescription for re-building trust for organizations, public and private, are to practice “radical transparency” and to shape the public discourse, getting out in front of the news. 

These implications are particularly important for stakeholders in health and health care. For health citizens to engage in health, they must first trust the organization with whom they’re considering engaging. Then, they must find that organization’s ‘voice’ authentic. This two precursors to engagement, trust and authenticity, were discovered in the 2008 Edelman Health Engagement Barometer. Greater health engagement breeds better health outcomes, based on meta-analyses conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among others.

How to practice radical transparency in health care? By providing, fully disclosing prices, quality indicators, and making services as accessible as possible and practical. In the US, we expect to have Health Insurance Exchanges in place in 2014 that will array health providers’ and plans’ services and products in these terms; that will force transparency through regulation, and that regulation is none other than the Affordable Care Act...