How Digital Technology is Being Used to Improve Healthcare

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, digital healthcare options have become increasingly popular with an overwhelming majority of employers (96%) offering telehealth as a benefit and 69% planning to incorporate it into benefits packages by 2025. Also, Medicare telehealth payment was recently extended through the end of 2024. 

Here’s why you should include telehealth in your benefits package:

1. Comprehensive care: Patient portals offer better access to medical records, meaning healthcare is provided both synchronously and asynchronously. In addition to virtual care appointments, telehealth also includes digital services that are used to track heart rate, blood pressure, glucose levels, and more. This form of continuous, remote monitoring is known to improve disease outcomes and lower treatment costs for payers, employers, and employees, making telehealth an enticing alternative to exclusively in-person healthcare. 
2. Efficiency: In light of COVID-19, employees want to be able to access healthcare under any circumstances. Telehealth eases travel demands, making it easier for employees to schedule appointments with specialists. In cases of chronic illness, dermatology, viral/bacterial infections, lab test results, physical therapy, prescription management, and post-surgery care, employees can easily mitigate the cost of commuting and save time by scheduling a virtual appointment. 
3. Access to specialized expertise: Telehealth allows employees to access their medical records securely and share them with primary and specialty care providers, even when records and providers are located in different health systems. As a result, it’s easy for employees to get a virtual second opinion regarding any health concern. Not only is this a benefit that offers employees peace of mind, but it’s also cost-effective for employers. Diagnostic errors related to breast cancer alone cost employers $4 billion a year. As a result, more employers want to facilitate access to virtual second opinions to help control costs, and telehealth is a popular solution. 

Do your benefit guides include telehealth? Reach out to sales@planyear.com to learn how you can quickly modernize the employee benefits experience with a Digital Benefit Guide by PlanYear.