If you’re looking for an easy way for your employees to get the healthcare support they need, telemedicine is a lifeline for your organization. With more convenient access to healthcare professionals, telemedicine services provide your employees and their families with advice, diagnoses, and treatment plans without them having to wait in a hospital room. If you have any questions about Telemedicine options for your organization in this critical time period, please reach out to Paypro as we have secured a standalone Telemedicine partnership that can be immediately enrolled in regardless of previous benefits eligibility.
What is Telemedicine?
Telemedicine provides employees and their dependents with 24/7 remote access to physicians, from the comfort of their home. As an emerging critical platform for healthcare needs, telemedicine helps in lifting the burden of the traditional healthcare sector. Examples include:
- Decreasing hospital capacities by keeping patients at home
- Protecting health care workers from cross-contamination
- Helping patients practice safe social distancing measures
- Reducing costs by eliminating waiting rooms, travelling expenses, and administration issues
- Providing private, limitless consultations with no need to wait for an appointment
- Sending prescriptions to a patient’s nearest pharmacy
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, the government-appointed Task Force leaders recommend telemedicine as a critical lifeline for healthcare patients. With copay benefit programs available, you can ensure that your employees have easy access to telemedicine services through your company healthcare providers.
How Employers Benefit from Telemedicine
When employers provide access to healthcare through telemedicine mediums, it can help employees and their families get the support they need quickly and easily. The less time that it takes for employees to find a remedy or treatment for their condition, the faster they can return to work and be productive.
Telemedicine is Convenient
With access to a physician from any phone, tablet, or computer, it’s easy for employees to take time out of their day to speak with a healthcare professional. It also deters hard workers from proudly continuing their busy schedule and infecting coworkers by offering quick and easy access to a solution.
In remote areas where a doctor’s office is difficult to reach, telemedicine is a better option than travelling to a hospital or clinic for health issues. Workers can stay on-site rather than having to spend hours waiting to visit their physician.
Telemedicine Services Reduce Costs
Not only are travel costs reduced through telemedicine, but wait times, emergency room visits, and urgent care expenses reduce dramatically with virtual access to doctors. Companies should consider choosing a healthcare provider that offers telemedicine apps, so that employees have easy access to patient monitoring and live video conferencing for real-time diagnosis.
Telemedicine Helps Manage Chronic Illnesses
Employees or their family members that suffer from chronic conditions may find it difficult to get to the doctor’s office regularly. Monitoring weight, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels, is easier with telemedicine technology that can transmit data from a patient’s home to their doctor’s office directly. With hospitals overcrowded with COVID-19 patients, employees that have chronic conditions can avoid contagious areas by accessing help remotely.
What Conditions Can Telemedicine Treat?
Telemedicine is a service that patients can call for a variety of health concerns. Some of the most common conditions include:
- Allergies
- Cough, cold and flu symptoms
- Diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting
- Fever or headache
- Rashes and insect bites
- Sore throats and respiratory problems
- Urinary Tract Infections (UTI)
Depending on your healthcare provider’s setup, telemedicine services can help family physicians forward medical histories and diagnostic images such as X-rays to consulting doctors for review. The consultant on the telemedicine call may have enough information to diagnose symptoms, send a prescription to local pharmacies, and work with patients to decide on the best treatment plan for their condition.
How to Get Employees to Take Advantage of Telemedicine Benefits
While the positives of telemedicine are clear, the only way that employees can take advantage of the benefits is to become familiar with the services. Some of the ways to educate all employees within your organization about telemedicine services include:
- Hosting a company-wide seminar to explain the benefits program
- Sharing information through newsletters, videos, and promotional material
- Inviting insurance professionals to speak to employees
- Providing incentives to excite employees to use the service
Human resource managers can show employees everything they need to know. This includes:
- The best way to access the telemedicine application
- How to go about submitting claims
- The best time to use the telemedicine service, and what to do if immediate care is needed.
Launching an educational campaign about telemedicine during the standard cold and flu season usually yields positive results.
Trust Paypro for Your Transition to Telemedicine
At Paypro, we help our clients build tools to help their businesses run efficiently, improve employee satisfaction, and ensure employees are taken care of. Our team will work with you to understand your healthcare goals, update processes, and help you take care of your employees and their families with new telemedicine programs. Contact Paypro today to learn how to get telemedicine services.
About The Author
Ingrid is the Content Marketing Manager at Paypro, managing both inbound and outbound marketing initiatives for the company. She has 15+ years’ of extensive marketing communications experience, leveraging brand awareness and strategic partnerships to increase sales revenue for a diverse group of B2B brands.