The Big Story: “Polling shows healthcare cost is the No. 1 issue for 51% of all voters leading into the midterm elections.”
Moving beyond the midterms: building trust and turning it into influence
By Isaac Squyres, Byron Johnson and Tim Stewart
4-minute read
We’re admittedly watching the final lap of this election cycle – with its unprecedented spending and barrage of ads, analysis and punditry – as closely as you are.
But the elections will soon be over, and the focus will rightly turn to a more durable and important question: What do healthcare leaders do next in these weird and wild times? Because regardless of the outcomes on November 3, we’re reminded, yet again, of a fundamental operating premise of our first 20 years as a firm: There’s nothing more political than healthcare.
Politics has never been incidental to the work of delivering care. It’s inseparable from it, and it operates on two levels:
- Big-P Politics: the legislation, regulation and elections shaping coverage, funding, rules of competition and more.
- Small-p politics: the relationships, trade-offs and expectations that run through every organization and community and determine whether trusted voices can move people to act.
Today, decisions made in Washington and state capitals are the highest of stakes, impacting finances, access to care, investment decisions, the very provision of care and more. C-Suite leaders and boards are under immense pressure to understand how their business decisions will play across policymakers, regulators, internal and external stakeholders and the communities they serve. They have limited time to explain what’s at risk, even as they must work to ensure a path forward that protects their mission.
Trust doesn’t automatically become influence.
Healthcare providers should have an edge in this environment. One built on the fact that clinicians, provider organizations, patient advocates and local hospitals remain the voices people trust most on health policy. Unfortunately, all too often these trusted messengers are not organized with a cohesive story and a campaign strategy.
Trust is earned locally, one patient and one community at a time. Influence is built across audiences, venues and issues. The trust edge, today, largely sits idle or is dulled to a point where it wields little in the way of influence. Turning trust into influence requires a coordinated campaign strategy.
What should healthcare leaders do now?
The power of trust: Two foundational takeaways from our research
As we look beyond the midterms, our national research shows a clear path for how healthcare organizations can build trust and influence (regardless of the party in power or the policies being considered).
- Public perception of community impact is an advocacy imperative. People are far more likely to support and advocate for a hospital they strongly agree is a good community partner. But corporate structure, financial details, community benefit lingo and regulatory language rarely make that case (just 29% of people strongly agree their local hospital is a good community partner). Translate those concepts into tangible community impact with mission-oriented, people-centered stories of expanded access, a stronger local workforce and better lives. Perception will move and trust will increase, delivering more opportunity to turn that trust to actual influence.
Takeaway: Lead with impact, not institutional language. Show people – in human terms – what the hospital makes possible in their community. - Local voices are the most credible messengers. Our research consistently shows that clinicians, provider organizations and patient advocates are the most trusted voices to explain what healthcare laws mean for people. Insurers, media, pharma and politicians trail significantly. Amid widespread skepticism of institutions, trust is personal and built through a deliberate ground game driven at the local level.
Takeaway: Put the messenger closest to care at the center of the campaign. Equip them to lead.
Making trust work harder
Those findings and the political moment we’re currently in point to a clear mandate to build trust and turn relationships into coordinated influence. That requires two connected disciplines working toward one objective.
- Research shows what people believe, what they reject and where their views can move – from the national level to individual markets. Those insights provide leaders the ability to test and refine arguments throughout the campaign.
- The campaign drives to the win. It identifies who can shape it, what can move them and when there is still room to act. Public affairs sets the objective and path to influence. Communication and engagement gives trusted local messengers the right argument, the right timing and the right audiences to affect the outcome.
Beyond the midterms
The midterms will determine who holds power. But healthcare’s fundamental challenge is engaging stakeholders and motivating them to act. With major policy changes already in motion – from Medicaid cuts to research funding to workforce policy – leaders cannot wait for their effects to become obvious to the public as they look to what’s next. They must explain what is at stake while opinion is still forming and then put trusted local voices to work to shape the outcome.
When a vote hangs in the balance or a key decision rests with a regulatory body, public affairs, advocacy and stakeholder engagement can’t be side projects. They are mission critical. We know the pressure of the moments. We live for them. We’re built for them. And we play to win.
Shameless self-promotion
We don’t often use The Quick Think to talk about ourselves. This week, we’re making an exception.
Healthcare leaders continue to navigate policy and political pressure at federal, state and local levels. Which is why, over the last 18 months, we’ve built on our two decades of experience solving political challenges for healthcare organizations. We’ve done this by expanding our public affairs bench and deepening our capabilities in digital advocacy, stakeholder activation and integrated campaigns to help organizations meet the industry’s growing obstacles.
Business, policy and reputation are increasingly inseparable, of course. We help clients move from reacting to policy changes to anticipating political risk, and from episodic advocacy to sustained influence. It’s how we stay true to our mission: making healthcare better when the pressure is highest.
This week, we’re taking another step: welcoming Senior Vice President Byron Johnson and establishing a dedicated presence in Washington, D.C. This puts us closer to federal policymaking, strengthening our ability to connect national decisions with action in state capitals and local markets. It also allows us to connect what’s happening in local markets and states to what’s happening in the Beltway. We’ll continue to partner with government relations leaders and lobbying teams, helping turn isolated efforts into integrated public affairs campaigns.
You already have one of the most trusted voices in healthcare. Our job is to help you put it to work.
Contributors – Emme Nelson Baxter and David Shifrin
Image Credit – Shannon Threadgill
