do you have petri dishes in your refrigerator?

By Merit Smith
Vice President
Director, Health Care Practice

When you visit the Smith household, expect to be welcomed and made to feel comfortable, but you’ll need to take care of yourself. Recently a visiting friend came back from the kitchen with a sandwich and beer and said, “You have Petri dishes in your refrigerator!"

”He sounded surprised to find Petri dishes on the top shelf of our refrigerator. I explained, “Those are Lauren’s. They’re part of some science experiment she’s doing.”  I let the subject drop, but I knew he found Petri dishes in the refrigerator to be odd.

My daughter, Lauren, does a lot of science projects, and she has staked out the top shelf of our refrigerator as hers. We’ve learned not to disturb them, and those little covered dishes, neatly labeled, are a normal part of our home.

The following week I visited two different clients, both regional health plans. In the course of the visits I asked them, “What projects are you working on that will expand your markets?” The answers surprised me. Both of them said that they were working on small-scale tests of new products. And both were testing products designed to serve the “down-scale” health care market. The rationale was quite similar between the two executives. Both of their regional markets had sizeable uninsured or underinsured markets, and these populations presented both a growing political problem and an untapped source of revenue for them.

Over the next month, I found five more plans that were attacking the underserved segment of the market. Some were approaching it via bare-bones offerings to small employer groups. Others were trying individual products as their vehicle. I found a client who is testing a prepaid health services card, exactly like a prepaid phone card. And we found a health system that offers a gift card that can be used anywhere in the system, such as in the hospital gift shop or cafeteria, or for an HMO co-pay. Many of these experiments are small scale, just a test without great expectations. I found two health plans that are basing their geographic expansion on low-end products.

The health care press frequently features articles about new birthing suites, concierge-level service and other efforts designed to appeal to the high-end niche markets. Meanwhile, there is a vast underserved market that represents a huge pool of revenue.