Employers looking to differentiate their benefit offerings are often searching for the latest trends in benefits for employees. One such trend is to offer telemedicine as a component of an overall healthcare benefit package.
One of the biggest reasons people are reluctant to make appointments with their doctor for nonemergency care is how much time it takes. There’s the driving time, time in the waiting room, time in lines, time in the exam room waiting on the doctor, etc. It often ends up taking a half day of paid time off (PTO) just for a routine appointment—even when the office is nearby. When PTO is scarce, that’s even more incentive to skip the appointment. Telemedicine looks to help solve this problem. By using video-calling technology combined with fast Internet speeds, healthcare providers and patients can meet online, saving a lot of that time and removing barriers to making time for visits.
