"Free" business models in healthcare

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Yesterday I was invited to give a lecture at the “Instituto de Empresa” in Madrid, Spain. The topic was innovation as a driver of healthcare in the XXIst century. I shared the floor with two amazing healthcare professionals from the New England Journal of Medicine. I want to thank both medical economics and instituto de empresa for having me.

One of the most interesting things we discussed was “free” business models in healthcare. I am sharing with you one of my slides on the topic. Is it possible to give away something for free in healthcare and still make a decent profit out of it?

Well, in my opinion it certainly is. Free or “low-cost” will come to healthcare in the coming years. Free is what citizens want — and free, increasingly, is what they are going to get. But free does not mean no profits. The start-up that is giving away the good for free can make a living by “capturing” the client and charging him/her for different things.

As you will see on my slide, in healthcare there are at least six different strategies to capture value when giving away something for free. If you want to go deeper into the subject you may find very interesting to read Wired magazine's article about “Free”.