Emergency room (ER) utilization remains a top concern for employers monitoring their health benefit offerings. Unnecessary visits to the emergency room contribute to high costs, adding about $47 billion in extra healthcare spending each year. A single ER visit costs approximately 12 times more than a regular physician’s office visit and lasts an average of four hours or more — directly affecting not only business financials, but also productivity and presenteeism.
Studies show that many ER and urgent care visits can be handled through virtual care. This means that on-demand and virtual care options can not only reduce unnecessary ER visits, but lower healthcare costs, too. Virtual care — including virtual primary care (VPC) — has emerged as an effective option for employees by combining quality care, convenience, and the connectivity of whole-person support.
By providing quality care in an easy-to-access manner, virtual care can meet your employees’ diverse health needs and be seen as a better option than going to the ER. Also, since most of today’s top ER diagnoses are the same as the top telehealth diagnoses, virtual care could feasibly replace a large percentage of emergent visits. Experts estimate that telehealth physicians may be able to address the problem at least 60% of the time.
With a digital front door like SydneySM Health offering access to virtual care and plans highlighting virtual-first care optimization, employers can expect to see a difference in both the health of their workforce and their bottom line.
Virtual Care Saves The ER And Urgent Care For Their Intended Purpose: Emergencies
Despite the immediate health support an emergency department provides, its care starts and stops at the physical front door. Through digitally enabled care, employees not only have on-demand access to care, but also ongoing support and chronic condition management resources. This includes the ability to text with care providers and symptom checkers to help with decision-making.
Virtual primary care also allows employees the convenience of participating in a yearly preventive care visit without leaving home. The ability to follow up after virtual appointments helps employees proactively manage their health with confidence, knowing exactly what to do next. Through its virtual delivery and digital-first support, virtual primary care offers convenience and personalization, leading to improved health outcomes and fewer care gaps. Virtual care provides accessible care employees can rely on when they need help — and saves the ER for true emergencies.
Anthem internal data shows 30% to 40% of members with a chronic physical condition also have a behavioral health condition, and those with a behavioral health condition report a 77% increase in average annual health spending. Many areas lack care providers like psychiatrists, meaning residents do not have a local behavioral health specialist for in-person visits. Access to virtual care (and its capacity to integrate with other resources) can connect employees to the care they need in ways ERs and urgent care facilities cannot — such as caring for a person’s emotional well-being.
Virtual care can also address geographic limitations to healthcare availability. Provider access varies widely between urban, suburban, and rural settings. Even with more providers per individual in urban and suburban settings, it may take months to schedule a new patient visit. In rural settings, there may be few to no providers or specialists nearby. Accessing care could mean a lengthy trip for appointments scheduled weeks in advance — and is linked to all-around higher mortality. Virtual care can bridge this gap and offer the appropriate health resources where they are needed most, many times before conditions escalate to an ER visit.
People Want Virtual Care For Convenience And Savings
Public interest in virtual care is also growing, as evidenced by the increasing demand for telehealth services and projected expansion of the digital health industry. With 89% of U.S. adults owning a smartphone, mobile devices alone provide most people sufficient access to virtual care.
Virtual care helps connect employees to personalized, proactive care while also helping them use their health benefits to improve their quality of life and work-life balance. About 75% of physicians say virtual care helps them deliver high-quality care, and according to the same source, 85% agree it increases the timeliness of care delivery — in turn driving better health outcomes, and giving people a chance to thrive at work and beyond. Employees can schedule telehealth visits without planning for travel or time away from work, making it easier to get timely care and stay on top of health concerns without any disruption to work-life balance.
The ability to access a doctor quickly and virtually is key to reducing absenteeism and can help protect employees from future health complications, driving increases in workforce productivity and significantly lowering costs of care for your employees and your organization.
Sydney Health is offered through an arrangement with Carelon Digital Platforms, a separate company offering mobile application services on behalf of your health plan. ©2023
The Virtual Primary Care experience is offered through an arrangement with Hydrogen Health.