5 Reasons to Include Telehealth in Employee Benefits

Telehealth is becoming a staple now in American healthcare. With the passage of Waiver 1135, which allows Medicare to pay for telehealth visits and 39 states having some form of a parity law in place that allows its residents to have access to telehealth in the same manner of an in-person visit, it is in the interest of companies to weigh the benefits of adding telehealth to their insurance offering.

Employees won’t have to take the day off to see their provider

Often, a visit to the doctor requires the patient to build their day around the appointment. With telehealth, patients are given back a large degree of autonomy over their day. Instead of having to navigate sometimes over an hour of commuting to an office, patients can instead log onto the app at the time of their appointment and then continue on with their day. No longer will workers have to worry about missing time, instead telehealth offers enough flexibility where an appointment can be had over their lunch break.

Telehealth doesn’t have to replace any part of a plan but can be supplemental

Instituting telehealth into an insurance plan does it mean an overhaul of the plan; consider telehealth another tool in your health care toolbox. Easily implemented into any system, Beam Health offers custom EHR integrations to make sure that your provider’s telehealth option is built into their workflow, not the other way around.

Companies in rural areas will have access to more providers

Speaking of sometimes having to travel over an hour! Those living in rural areas know the inconvenience of traveling to and from a doctor’s office while trying to navigate their everyday lives. Telehealth gives these patients opportunities to still see their doctor and not have to worry about missing time from work or having to figure out logistics for childcare because they need an appointment when they should be picking up their child. And, if an employee is unsatisfied or unable to have an appointment with their current provider, telehealth gives them the opportunity to visit providers within the state, regardless of the distance between them.

Employees have the ability to see their own doctors

Something to consider when looking at telehealth platforms for your employees is whether the platform is vertically integrated or if it gives your company flexibility when it comes to choosing providers. If a telehealth company is vertically integrated it means that in order to use the platform you must use one of their doctors, thereby limiting the options available. Beam Health, for example, has no vertical integration in place and instead integrates providers into our system so patients can continue care with their existing provider.

An increase of specialty providers

With the advantage of employees being able to see their own doctors comes the added benefit of the ability to see specialists as well. As mentioned above, Beam can be easily installed into any provider workflow and if the need arises for an employee to see a specialist, then Beam can be plugged into accommodate those needs.

Instituting telehealth into an insurance plan is giving a company’s employees the opportunity to get the most out of their healthcare. It also allows the company to make the most out the time of those who’s work is so valuable. Beam Health offers a platform that can be used by any provider and doesn’t limit a patient’s choice in healthcare. To learn more about Beam Health, please visit us here to schedule a demo with an onboarding specialist.