Virtual Care Success: Top 7 Reasons Why Providers Fall Short

With access to convenient, high-quality healthcare, virtual care empowers employees to advocate for their health. But what does a good virtual care service look like? 

It’s important for employers to be mindful of what benefit solutions work best for their employees. To help consultants and employers evaluate a top-tier virtual care provider, we’ve rounded up the 7 ways virtual care companies fall short in their services. 

No Custom Employee Engagement Campaigns 

The key to virtual care success is getting employees to utilize the service. Dynamic, hyper-personalized, and comprehensive employee engagement campaigns drive the utilization of virtual care. From onboarding and education to ongoing awareness and reinforcement, employee engagement campaigns are necessary for virtual care providers and should be continuous, year-long initiatives. Plus, they should be funded and managed by the provider to take the lift off HR (Human Resources) teams.  

Tedious Registration Process 

When employees aren’t feeling well, they should be able to get the care they need quickly and conveniently. A tedious registration process deters workers from seeking care and it should take no longer than a few minutes to access their account with a virtual care provider. Employees should be pre-registered to remove barriers to care such as uploading insurance information, adding credit card details and lengthy questionnaires.  

Hands-Off Care 

Care should be continuous, especially for the management of chronic diseases. Employees should have access to high-quality doctors with no predefined limits on the number of visits or conditions treated. Virtual care must offer value-based care and providers should be committed to practicing great clinical and compassionate care to employees.  

Fees for Care 

Virtual care should be free for workers and their dependents to use. Consult fees should be available for employees on qualified HDHPs (High Deductible Health Plan).  

Claims Impacts 

Virtual care that runs independently from the group medical plan incurs no claims, ultimately saving employers and employees money in total healthcare costs. Virtual visits should not incur medical claims.  

No Performance Guarantees 

A virtual care provider should be willing to put their fees at risk with performance guarantees. Whether it’s meeting certain utilization or savings thresholds, virtual care providers should ensure that their services can enrich employee benefits programs.  

Limited Reporting 

Employers should have access to their average utilization, savings, deidentified population health data and more. Reporting should be robust and allow employers to see the success of virtual care in real-time.  

First Stop Health Virtual Care  

First Stop Health virtual care solutions are comprised of Primary Care, Urgent Care and Mental Health, and deliver patient-first care to members where and when they need it. Virtual Primary Care connects members to doctors in less than 5 days on average. It consists of urgent, preventive and chronic care to help coordinate and manage the many touchpoints of members’ healthcare journeys. With Virtual Urgent Care (Telemedicine), members have access to 24/7 urgent care for episodic health concerns. Virtual Mental Health provides counseling to members, and in conjunction with Virtual Primary Care guidance and medication management, leads to better whole-person health. Our digital-first approach expands access to healthcare for our members and provides care that people love.®