48% of employers plan to offer telehealth services by the end of next year

48% of employers plan to offer telehealth services by the end of next year

Companies are open to make telehealth services available to their employees. According to National Business Group on Health study involving 136 employers that represent approximately 7.5 million employees, 48% of employers will take this route in states where that’s legal.

Within this group, 33% of employers plan to offer these services without incentives or penalties, while 15% will do so with incentives and penalties.

Moreover, employers are also considering launching additional health tools, with 84% of them saying they plan to offer disease management tools next year, though it’s unclear what kind of tools we’re talking about here. Another 71% said they want to offer price transparency and decision support tools.

Last month, Towers Watson released its survey on telemedicine, predicting it would rise 68% by 2015. The survey at companies with 1,000+ employees found that 22% currently offer telemedicine consultations as a cost-saving alternative to emergency room or primary care visits.

The same survey uncovered that an additional 37% plan to offer telemedicine services by 2015; and by 2016 or 2017, another 34% of employers will considering the same.

[Via: MobiHealthNews]