Not Enough Staff, Too Many Consumers—Do You Still Need Marketing?

In recent months, every time I bring up the need for marketing to get better health plan contracts and attract new consumers, there is one response among executive teams of specialty and primary care provider organizations that concerns me. "We don't need marketing. We can't deal with the consumer demand we have right now because we don't have the workforce."

I would argue that this situation is exactly why provider organization executive teams need to invest in marketing—to attract the contracts and the consumers with a sustainable margin. "Sustainable margins" give provider organizations the ability to . . .