Telemedicine has been found to be a valuable benefit for employers and employees. Nothing is more frustrating for employees than to have themselves or their children become sick in the evening or on the weekend. Telemedicine allows the employee to immediately connect with a practicing doctor who is able to treat and prescribe medicine immediately about 90% of the time. Currently, 70% of the office visits could have been taken care of without the office visit. Think of the savings in time, medical cost and productivity.
For employers, it reduces expense charged against the medical plan experience and can be an employee productivity asset, reducing the need for employees to be absent from work for a doctor appointment or the need to miss work in order to take a child to a needed appointment.
As with any other benefit, there is a vast difference in product designs offered by brokers and consultants, with many requiring a co-pay at the time of the call and/or being limited to a number of calls per month or year. In many cases, brokers tag their fees onto the unit price of the benefit per employee, causing vast fluctuation in pricing.
We prefer to design and offer a program with no co-pay, no limit to call usage, and at a very competitive price. The program can be designed to be employer paid as part of the health plan or presented on a voluntary benefit basis.