6 Reasons Why Employers Need to Offer Virtual Healthcare to their Employees

Here are 6 reasons why employers need to adopt virtual healthcare for their workforce, and the top benefits virtual healthcare provides them.

1 – You can Save Thousands of Dollars per employee

In addition to saving thousands of dollars in productivity losses per employee annually, offering virtual healthcare to your employees can also reduce the current average 10 days of absenteeism. Tia Health offers streamlined services such as referrals to specialist, free drug delivery and many more.

a) Employee absenteeism costs employers $16.6 billion each year

An average of 9.3 sick days are taken per year in Canada, with the highest absenteeism rate found in Quebec at 10.8 days. Taking into account the average Canadian salary, an estimated 10 days of absenteeism can cost your company an average of $2,000 per employee annually (and could be much more if your workforce is highly paid).

b) Preventative care, not reactive care

Less than 50% of Canadians are able to schedule a doctor’s appointment for the same or next day, while 33% report having to wait 6 or more days to be seen by a family doctor. As a result many will seek unnecessary care in emergency departments, , which may take 4 and often more hours of wait time.

Delayed care has been documented to increase future hospital visits and increases related costs for employers. According to major health organizations: 75-80% of chronic illness can be eliminated with early prevention, such as timely primary care provided by Tia Health.

c) Reduce absence due to Family Care

Employers lose at least $2.7 billion dollars per year because of family related issues and employees with children under the age of 5 years take almost double the number of days off for personal/family responsibilities compared to those without children.

Almost 60% of children are sent home from child care services unnecessarily due to symptoms of illness. Parents seeking rapid medical consults for their child with Tia Health can avoid days lost waiting in clinics, thus reducing employee absenteeism due to family care.

2 – Increase Workplace Productivity

For every 1,000 employees, it is estimated an employer can face $380,000 of productivity losses yearly, in addition to health care costs.

The productivity of teams with four to eight co-workers can drop by 22% when one team member is absent due to illness

Converging scientific evidence has found healthy employees are more productive than peers with health issues. Evidence also suggests that employees with depression are three times more likely to experience lost productivity.

3 – Increase Access to Quality Healthcare for Employees Working Remotely or Travelling

The World Health Organization has identified telehealth as a beneficial tool to provide workers in remote and rural areas with timely access to medical care.

Employees using Tia Health will have access to secure and reliable healthcare when away from their desks, and their health history will be easily retrieved for more comprehensive care.

4 – Increase Employee Satisfaction and Retention

Research shows healthier employees have increased job satisfaction, which is continually cited in academic studies as a top factor for retaining employees.

Research also shows 95% of users are satisfied with tele-consults, and Tia Health specifically has very high levels of employee and employer satisfaction.

5 – Virtual Healthcare Improves Work-Life Balance

Employees using Tia Health can have prescriptions sent to their preferred pharmacy or delivered to their home or workplace, allowing them to optimize their daily schedules.

The healthcare world still operates from 9-5, but Tia Health gives employees the possibility to access care in outside of work hours.

6 – Stay Competitive and Attract The Best Talent

Survey studies consistently find healthcare benefits to be the most attractive workplace factors, while one study found over 90% of millennials worldwide consider work/life balance as a crucial component in their workplace search.

It’s your turn to offer Virtual Healthcare to your Employees. By 2018, it is projected that 81% of employers in the US will offer telehealth options. The successful large scale adoption of telehealth by hundreds of forward thinking American companies is now an opportunity innovative Canadian companies can benefit from by partnering with Tia Health. Virtual healthcare is an inevitability and is an emerging trend in health care. Companies that don’t plan for this soon will be behind innovative workplace leaders. Are you ready?