As non-traditional care options continue to multiply—from retail clinics to telehealth platforms—we wanted to uncover the real drivers behind patient decision-making across generations. What makes someone choose a CVS Minute Clinic over their primary care physician? How do different age groups weigh convenience against continuity of care?
Our latest market research report, "From Waiting Rooms to Walgreens: How Three Generations Navigate Today's Healthcare Choices," provides crucial insights for healthcare organizations navigating this shifting terrain.
What We Set Out To Learn
We embarked on this research with a clear purpose: to understand what drives people's healthcare choices between traditional and non-traditional options, and what differences exist between generations. Our team examined how factors like convenience, quality, access, and cost influence these important decisions.
We were particularly interested in how people value primary care today and what they might prioritize in the future. How do different payment models affect their choices? What role does insurance play in their decision-making process?
Rather than surveying the entire population, we specifically focused on Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. Why? Because these younger patients' preferences will fundamentally shape healthcare's future as they become the primary healthcare consumers in the coming years.
The Rise Of Non-Traditional Healthcare
Non-traditional healthcare has been rising in popularity over the last decade or so, especially during COVID-19. Typically, this is medical care outside the conventional primary care physician relationship within established healthcare systems.
This includes convenient access points such as:
- Urgent care facilities
- Telehealth platforms and apps
- Pharmacy-based clinics
- Emerging retail store-based providers
These alternatives typically offer more flexible scheduling, walk-in availability, and focused services for specific health needs without requiring an ongoing patient-provider relationship.
What Drives Patient Choices?
Our findings were clear: convenience and accessibility are the primary factors drawing patients to non-traditional care options. When we examined preferences across three non-traditional formats, we uncovered distinctive value propositions for Urgent Care Centers, Retail-Based & Minute Clinics, and Telehealth.
Despite the rise of alternatives, our research found that traditional healthcare maintains a crucial advantage: trust. We identified why people generally stick with traditional primary care doctors and how different generations approach their healthcare choices.
Will My Insurance Pay For That?
To learn how people think about using health insurance and paying for healthcare, we started by assessing how they think using their car insurance works, then compared it to how they think their health insurance works.
We uncovered that people don’t really understand how using their insurance benefits works, fueling a further discrepancy between how patients say they’d like to pay for healthcare versus what they actually end up doing.
Bringing It Home With Behavioral Science
Psychological factors often outweigh purely rational economic calculations in healthcare decision-making, explaining why stated preferences for transparency don't always translate to corresponding behaviors.
Reading our 2025 Qualitative Healthcare Experience Report will help you learn about how Present Bias & Pain Aversion, Uncertainty Premium Overvaluation, Complexity Avoidance, and Loss Frame Perception play a role in shaping patient decisions in healthcare.
What This Means For Your Organization
Whether you're a traditional healthcare provider, a retail health innovator, or somewhere in between, our research provides crucial insights for strategic planning and patient engagement.
To learn more about our findings and how they can help your organization adapt to the changing healthcare landscape, download the full report or contact our team for a personalized consultation.
by Clixlogix 
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