Embedded TeleHealth vs. Add-On Packages

As the costs of healthcare have risen over the past few years, so has availability of innovative healthcare technology that helps both you and your employees control their healthcare spending. Telehealth isn’t a new concept, but the options available to you and your company are expanding.

Many of our clients initially question these new add-on telehealth packages, simply because their main healthcare plan comes with an embedded telehealth option. But what they don’t realize is that these low-cost add-ons improve access to healthcare, decrease overall spending, and bridge gaps for employees that you might not realize are there.

Telehealth: While many modern plans offer telehealth, there’s still typically a copay (or even the full cost of the visit) for the employee to cover, depending on your provider. With add-on packages like FreshBenies, there’s no cost – not even a copay – when your employees access their virtual doctors on demand.

Vision savings: With fewer employers offering vision plans, add-on telehealth plans can help with vision savings that a traditional embedded plan just doesn’t offer. Employees have the ability to reap hundreds of dollars in savings when they access this benefit.

Billing advocacy: Where an embedded plan only offers virtual health visits, an add-on plan can help your employees negotiate down the cost of their medical bills.

Pet care: With add-on packages like veterinary discounts, your employees can even save on the cost of pet health care as part of the add-on plan.

Prescription savings: If there’s a drug that’s not covered by insurance, your employee’s add-on plan can help them with prescription discounts, and by finding a local pharmacy with the best price for the medication they need.

Dental savings: For employers that don’t offer dental insurance, or employees who opt out of dental, they can leverage the dental savings their add-on plan provides to save money on dentist appointments.

With such a deep list of services, the first question we’re often asked by our clients relates to the cost of an add-on telehealth program. Believe it or not, the partners we work with charge our clients less than $15 per employee per month for these extensive plans.

Between the cost savings to your employee, and the impact this type of add-on could have on your overall healthcare costs, along with the increase in employee satisfaction for such an extensive value-add to their compensation plan, incorporating an add-on plan to your employee benefits package is almost a no-brainer.

If you want to learn more, let’s chat. Email us for all the details on how you can add a deeper telehealth option to your 2019 plan.