Yellow pages advertising by physicians

Headnote

Are doctors providing the information consumers want most?

Although most prospective patients use multiple sources of information when selecting a physician, many prospective patients consult the yellow pages when contacting and selecting a practitioner.

Even though managed care is narrowing consumers' physician choice, a 1993 study by Blue Cross/Blue Shield found that only 44% of prospective patients were members groups such as HMOs and PPOs. Yet many of these prospective patients, as well as the other 147 million Americans not enrolled in managed care plans, want the freedom to choose their own health care professional. Besides managed care booklets, most prospective patients use multiple sources of information during their search for a health care professional.

One of the most frequent sources used to contact ans select a practitioner is the yellow pages. In 1995, National Yellow Pages Monitor reported that a survey of 80,000 consumers found more than 75% of yellow pages references to "physician/surgeons" during previous year resulted in a physician contactand 54% of those contacts resulted in physicians providing a billable service.

Many consumers used the yellow pages to contact their regular health care provider. However, the survey found that 25% of consumers used the yellow pages without any specific physician in mind, and these consumers seem most likely to have their final choice of a physician influenced by a yellow pages ad. Consumers using the yellow pages to select a physician might need more than reminder and reference information from the yellow pages.

Although the yellow pages are probably the most commonly used form of physician advertising, few studies have directly examined physician yellow pages ads. In 1993, we conducted a study to: (1) examine the consumer information contained in physician yellow pages advertising, (2) determine the information most desired from physician yellow pages advertisements, and (3) compare physician yellow pages ads with consumer information desires.

Physician Advertising

Since the 1982 Supreme Court decision allowing physicians to advertise, many health care professionals have used advertising ranging from television ads to direct mail campaigns. However, the yellow pages is the advertising medium used most frequently by both physicans and patients.

According to National Yellow Pages Monitor statistics, in 1995, yellow pages ads were used nine times more often than direct mail,...