Staple benefits like health insurance and retirement plans are so embedded in the culture that workers now expect them. What so many people do not realize is that benefits cost their employers a lot of money. Is there a way for employers to control their costs? Perhaps. Virtual healthcare may be a path employers can take moving forward.
What we now call virtual healthcare was called telehealth and telemedicine prior to the COVID pandemic. Different term; same thing. It is an option that employers are looking at as a way to reduce healthcare expenses, mainly in the area of primary care. Indeed, Walmart just announced plans to expand virtual healthcare for employees nationwide.
A Successful Pilot Program
Walmart earlier launched a pilot program to test the value and effectiveness of its virtual primary care service. The program was an enormous success, resulting in an 11% reduction in its total healthcare costs without passing any additional costs on to employees. So successful was the plan that Walmart will expand it nationwide. Virtual primary care is already available to Walmart workers in 21 states.
Walmart also has plans to open at least 17 new in-store healthcare centers to complement nearly 2-dozen that are already operating. Common sense suggests that employees will be able to take advantage of primary care at the centers as part of their employment benefits. However, Walmart has yet to verify that.
A Cost-Effective Alternative
Walmart is not alone in its desire to add virtual primary care to its benefits package. Other companies with self-funded health plans are also making the push to virtual. Their reasoning is simple: virtual healthcare is a cost-effective alternative to traditional in-office visits. And with more states giving nurse practitioners and physician assistants full practice authority for primary care, the virtual option can be less expensive than sending employees to a doctor’s office.
The reality of primary care is that it consists mainly of consultations and prescription writing. Most of what goes on during a typical primary care visit can take place via videoconferencing. It is not absolutely necessary for doctor and patient to meet face-to-face.
What It Means to Future Benefits
Insurance companies have historically bristled at the idea of covering virtual healthcare. They did so during the pandemic because they were offered little choice. But now that things have returned to normal, the resistance has returned as well. That could change in the coming months.
As general agencies and benefits brokers grapple with the reality that health insurance is gradually pricing more employers out, they will be looking for less expensive options. Dallas-based brokerage general agency BenefitMall is already encouraging brokers to look under every stone and around every corner in search of the best products for their clients. How long will it be before insurance carriers decide they have to cover virtual healthcare in order to maintain their customer bases?
The Cat Is Out Of the Bag
As someone who has been covering employee benefits and health insurance for many years, I get the impression that the virtual healthcare cat is out of the bag. And now that it is, there is no getting it back in the bag. Virtual healthcare is here to stay. It is only a matter of time before it is a default option for primary care.
It would seem that virtual healthcare represents a path forward in the fight to control healthcare costs. If it is just as effective but less expensive, it could be the ideal way to address spiraling costs. It could completely change primary care for the better. Here’s hoping it does just that.
