Primary care doctors may be the latest thing Millennials are scrapping, according to a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Researchers found that 45% of 18- to 29-year-olds surveyed had no primary care provider, compared to 28% of 30- to 49-year-olds, 18% of 50- to 64-year-olds and 12% of people 65 years and older.

Make your practice Millennial-friendly

With their desire for convenience, faster service, connectivity and price transparency, Millennials are seeking out alternatives such as retail clinics in big box stores, urgent care clinics, and telemedicine sites. Many traditional practices try to keep pace by tag-teaming patients among a group of doctors, physician’s assistants, and nurse practitioners. So even though the patient may not be seeing the same individual health-care provider each visit, they’re seeing the same team. Plus many practices are adding smartphone apps for making appointments, as well as making prices more transparent. Will this penchant for a la carte health services extend to specialists like ophthalmologists? Only time will tell, but not many would have guessed 10 years ago that a whole generation would feel comfortable ordering prescription glasses over the Internet. And now Warby Parker is valued at $1.2 billion. At the very least, expect many practices to shift toward the style of service Millennials have come to expect from their other health care providers.