How does service price influence patients’ decisions? An examination of the free-market pricing mechanism in online health communities

Wu, Hong; Deng, Zhaohua; Wang, Bin; Gupta, Sumeet

doi:10.1007/s12525-020-00453-0

Cited by 17 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Given that some studies have begun to examine the role of price in the online medical service environment ( 8 , 9 ), limited studies have explored them in both individual and team-based contexts. In an online medical platform, a physician can provide individual service and join a team to provide team-based service, which should raise the question of whether patients' decisions would be influenced by the price of the individual service and the price of the team-based service and how should physicians establish prices for individual service and team-based service?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the development of online medical platforms, more information is provided publicly and can be used to judge quality. By exploring the role of price in the online medical environment, researchers have proven that when facing a serious disease, patients tend to choose physicians with a high service fee, while the negative influence has been universally obtained based on transaction cost theory for patients with mild diseases ( 8 ). However, current studies mainly focus on the physician's individual services.…”

Section: Hypotheses Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, with the development of online medical services, researchers have begun to look at the role of price in patients' decisions. When facing a serious disease, patients tend to choose physicians with a high service fee, while the negative influence has been universally obtained based on transaction cost theory for patients with mild diseases ( 8 ). In addition, the price has a non-linear relationship with patient satisfaction ( 9 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of individual service and team-based service price in the online environment: A view from the price difference

Lü

Wei²,

Li³

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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Different from the traditional medical market, the online medical market allows physicians considerable discretion in setting prices of their services, which is beginning to be paid close attention to. Physicians face a challenge with the introduction of various service styles. Guided by transaction utility theory and price fairness, this study aims to investigate the influence of pricing strategy on service demands from the price difference perspective by focusing on two typical service models: individual service and team-based service. Moreover, team characteristics (response speed and team size) are also considered. The data collection was done in March 2018 and repeated in May 2018, and physicians who provide both individual service and team-based services are included in our study. Finally, a dataset consisting of 1,100 teams with 1,100 physician leaders from 14 departments such as obstetrics and gynecology department were collected from an online medical platform in China. Empirical results support most of our hypotheses. A negative influence of team-based price was observed. As a substitute service, a higher individual service price will make patients turn to team-based service. Moreover, individual service prices negatively moderated the relationship between team-based service prices and demands. By calculating the price difference between the individual service price and the team-based service price, we found a negative role of the price difference affecting patient purchase decisions. Although we did not find a significant effect of team size, a quick response can attract more patients. Price fairness provides a proper framework for understanding pricing strategy in individual and team-based service in an online environment. Understanding the effects of prices from a price difference perspective has both theoretical and practical contributions. Specifically, this study contributes to knowledge on price fairness, online medical platforms, and virtual teams, and provides management suggestions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hypotheses Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The role of individual service and team-based service price in the online environment: A view from the price difference

Lü

Wei²,

Li³

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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show abstract

“…Octopus collector can expeditiously complete large-scale collection and help reduce the cost of information acquisition. When selecting a doctor, patients will consider the doctor’s service quality (including general response speed and the number of online service patients), price and professional title ( Cao et al, 2017 ; Wu et al, 2021 ). Therefore, except for ORs, this study also focuses on the following aspects: the general response speed, professional title, price and the number of online service patients.…”

Section: Doctor Ranking Model Considering Patients’ Emotional Intensitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Doctors ranking through heterogeneous information: The new score functions considering patients’ emotional intensity

Chen

2023

Expert Systems with Applications

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“…In addition, OHC platforms have adopted a profit-sharing mechanism, enabling doctors to earn income by providing high-quality online services. 14 Two of China's notable patient-to-doctor communities are Good Doctor Online and WeDoctor (formerly Guahao.com).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Narrative Reviews on Patient E-doctor Choice in Online Health Communities

Zhang

Sun

Zhao

et al. 2023

INQUIRY

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As online health communities (OHCs) continue to proliferate, narrative reviews on doctors have become a vital reference source for patients when choosing online health services. However, the potential value of subjective information reflecting patient experiences in OHCs has not been fully explored. The present study seeks to investigate the impact of narrative reviews on patients’ selection of e-doctors and the extent to which such reviews are moderated by doctors’ specialties. This paper collected data from 747 doctors and 105 032 reviews from WeDoctor, one of China’s most popular OHCs, in 2019. We employed Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling to extract 3 topics and analyzed their effects on patient e-doctor choice using a multiple regression method. Our findings indicate that Topic 1, clinical skills and effects, had a positive impact on patient choice in OHCs ( β1 = .243, P < .001), as did Topic 2, service attitude and trust ( β2 = .130, P < .05). However, the impact of Topic 3, convenience, did not show a significant effect in this study. Moreover, our results suggest that the specialty of Internal Medicine can positively moderate the relationship between Topic 1 (clinical skills and effects) and patient e-doctor choice ( β9 = .087, P < .05). Based on the findings of this study, e-doctors are encouraged to enhance their technical competence to improve treatment effectiveness and adjust their communication methods to increase patient trust and sense of security. OHC platform managers should accurately understand the key factors that influence patient choice and take measures to improve their service quality accordingly.

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How does service price influence patients’ decisions? An examination of the free-market pricing mechanism in online health communities

Cited by 17 publications

References 50 publications

The role of individual service and team-based service price in the online environment: A view from the price difference

The role of individual service and team-based service price in the online environment: A view from the price difference

Doctors ranking through heterogeneous information: The new score functions considering patients’ emotional intensity

The Impact of Narrative Reviews on Patient E-doctor Choice in Online Health Communities

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