Key Takeaways
- Virtual urgent care provides convenient access to treatment of minor illnesses and injuries.
- It is less costly than in-person visits, saving both the employee and employer money.
- Since it can be accessed from anywhere, virtual urgent care options reduce time out of office, which can boost productivity.
Doesn’t it seem that there’s never enough time in the day?
Between work, family, and the demands of daily life, it’s hard to find time to rest, let alone visit the doctor. But when your employee gets sick or injured, it’s important they receive prompt care.
So, what do they do? Do they delay care and risk feeling worse, or take time off work for a future appointment that might not even fully fix their immediate health needs? It’s a conundrum that happens all the time. Luckily, it’s one with a viable solution.
Enter virtual urgent care. Like its brick-and-mortar counterpart, virtual urgent care provides access to licensed medical professionals who can diagnose and treat common illnesses, prescribe medications, and refer patients for specialty treatment for more complex cases.
The big difference between the two options, however, is convenience. Virtual urgent care can be accessed by a computer or smartphone, often with extended or round-the-clock hours to accommodate busy schedules, making it one of the most-used benefits offered by an employer.
Offering virtual urgent care as an option for employees can help you as a business owner, too. Here are a few ways you can “benefit” from this benefit.
Reduce claims and healthcare spending
Offering virtual urgent care gives employees an affordable option to pricier—and often unnecessary—trips to the emergency room or in-person urgent care offices for minor illnesses and injuries.
For example, United Healthcare highlights that virtual care costs just over $50, compared to $165 for urgent care and $1,700 for an ER visit.
This reduces how much the employee owes for care, and it minimizes the amount you have to pay for claims. Plus, virtual care is typically available 24/7.
Predictably lower claims costs can also help you more accurately budget for future healthcare spending.
Minimize time out of office
In-person appointments with providers and specialists require advance planning. The employee needs to request time off work, and employers need to ensure appropriate shift coverage. And if that employee happens to live in a rural area where a doctor’s visit requires extra travel time, that means even more time off work.
For a minor illness or injury, that’s a lot of work for what’s usually a pretty quick visit.
Virtual urgent care remedies a lot of these headaches for both employees and employers. Since it can be accessed by smartphone from anywhere and at any time, employees won’t need to travel anywhere—unless it’s to their car or a private room to make the call. Employers maintain adequate staffing for shifts. Productivity wins all around!
Maximize employee health and morale
While virtual urgent care shouldn’t replace a relationship with one’s primary care physician, it can act as a stopgap for preventive care.
With many adults delaying preventive care visits, often due to cost or convenience, serious health issues can go undetected. Virtual urgent care providers can recommend screenings or connect patients with in-network specialists by phone, eliminating a common barrier to establishing routine medical care.
This type of on-demand care also increases employee morale. The stress of taking time off work, scheduling childcare, arranging transportation, and more is alleviated by offering the convenience of virtual healthcare. Less stress = happier employees. And happier employees = healthier employees.
Conclusion
When it comes to offering robust employee health benefits like virtual urgent care to your employees, you have options. The LewerBenefits team can provide you with all the resources you need to make an informed decision both you and your employees will appreciate.
