Virtual health here to stay

Regardless of the delivery model, virtual health care is here to stay.

Back in 2019, roughly 19 per cent of surveyed Canadian employers were providing virtual health services to employees. Fast-forward to 2020 and that number had climbed to 31 per cent — with an additional 27 per cent actively considering adding the benefit.

And while the 12-percentage-point jump is largely attributable to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, nine out of 10 employers also say that their virtual care will continue after the pandemic subsides, according to Aon’s recent white paper Optimizing Virtual Care in the New Better.

“The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic catalyzed the already expanding virtual care market. Efforts to enable the safe delivery of health services meant governments and the private sector, often in partnership, mobilized to push forward new, more efficient and more comprehensive delivery models.”

Since the pandemic began, there have been a number of new and more efficient modes of virtual care that have come out, says Joey Raheb, Aon’s senior vice president for health solutions.

“Providers have looked and consolidated service offerings. So, we’ve seen organizations that had focused predominantly on primary care visits… have instead added in services like [employee and family assistance] programs, and mental health counselling,” he says.

Virtual care starts with strategy

While the benefits of virtual care include increased employee productivity through reductions in lost time due to absence, as well as improved employee engagement, health and well-being, these goals are not easily achieved.

“Just like everything we do, we want to ensure that when our clients implement virtual care, it is done in conjunction with their overall benefits philosophy, which ultimately aligns with their business objectives,” says Raheb.

To start, employers should gather insights through data and advanced analytics capabilities to better understand health risks, health disparities and health conditions in their workforce population — and identify potential gaps in access and support.

While improving access to primary care would be a clear benefit to employees, virtual care allows plan sponsors to take access to medical care a step further by looking at costs and trends in their benefits along with employee population demographics, absence rates or productivity, according to Aon.

“Targeted programming and strategy that includes virtual care options can be built around employee needs and solid data that identifies trends and areas that need attention. Creating this connection allows employers to measure the success of their programs.”

Measuring success

Virtual channels provide several benefits — such as personalized health-monitoring apps and drug-adherence monitoring tools — that lend themselves to improved health outcomes, which can be measured through trend and cost analysis. For example, employers can identify the cost impact of certain health conditions in their workforce, such as diabetes or heart disease.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also focused attention on the growing need for improved mental health supports, and virtual therapy platforms and digital self-help tools, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, can provide this support while also breaking down access barriers, according to Aon.

“Analyzing usage of these tools in tandem with a review of productivity, absence and benefits plan usage can help measure the impact of the introduction of virtual mental health support tools. The result is that employers are better able to make informed decisions about the role virtual care will play in improving employees’ physical and mental health.”

The metrics that determine the success of virtual care are unique to specific clients and will depend on the strategy they’ve set out, says Raheb.

“For example, if it’s ensuring that your employees have timely access to mental health practitioners, this will be something that you will want to ensure your selected partner can deliver on, measure and report back to you.”

Boosting engagement

Despite the many benefits, virtual-care solutions can be confusing in an already complex health-care system, so employers should create a plan that connects employees and their families with the right resources at the right time, along with providing information and integrating well with the rest of the health-care ecosystem.

“Start by creating an experience map to understand employees’ states of mind, comfort with technology, preferences for in-person care, challenges and digital aptitudes,” says Optimizing Virtual Care in the New Better.

With this information, employers can evaluate the virtual and in-person options available and identify those of most value to their target population segments.

“Positive effects on engagement can be achieved by streamlining the points of entry to care, such as a virtual primary care platform, a concierge navigation service or a digital platform most employees are already using.”

Consultants and virtual care providers have been working to make virtual care easily understandable for some time now, and they have seen examples of well-executed implementation plans, says Raheb.

“Good education always starts with a good communication plan,” he says. “However, to continue to make sure that the benefits are well understood and utilized, organizations need to make sure [they are] always visible and that you work with your virtual care provider to support ongoing communication that can be leveraged at different times during the year.”

Selecting a partner

Also crucial? Establishing the criteria needed to select the vendors or health-care providers that will bring this virtual care strategy to life, says Aon. This starts with some key questions:

• Does the price model and service offering support my strategy? Do potential partners have a clinical approach with a foundation of validated evidence-based care pathways and behaviour-change science?
• Is the partner able to provide services in multiple provinces? Are partners able to scale or evolve service offerings if demand grows or needs change? How do they demonstrate that the services provided lead to valid positive health outcomes? Are their data security practices compliant with regulatory requirements?
• Are they willing to integrate and collaborate with other vendors in my health-care benefits ecosystem (such as a disability manager or specialty preferred provider pharmacy network)?
• Do the provider platforms connect seamlessly to other platforms that support our member experience framework (such as employee and family assistance programs, chronic-disease services, health system navigation or nursing support)?
• Will the partners agree to accountability and performance targets or service-level agreements?
• How intuitive is the technology? Is it easy to use? Is AI part of the mapping process?

All partners should be held accountable to the virtual care strategy’s overall results — regardless of what services they provide, according to Aon.

The methodology to measure the performance of these strategies should be agreed upon by all partners. If, for example, cost savings are a key performance target, identify in advance how the baseline and future costs will be calculated and what benchmark will be used to measure savings.

The use of performance guarantees and service-level agreements can help make sure that an employer’s expectations and objectives are met and delivered, while all parties are “rowing in the same direction” in executing a strategy, says Raheb.

Top of mind

Virtual care provides employers with an opportunity to address productivity, engagement and cost issues attributable to employee health in a new way.

“The execution of a well-planned and well-defined strategy that reflects employee health needs, supports stated goals and defines and measures desired outcomes is the key to success,” says Aon.

“Integrating virtual care into health and benefit plans is still a new consideration for most Canadian employers. But the numbers are increasing, and it won’t be long before virtual care is a top-of-mind factor in benefits strategy and performance.”  

For more information, visit www.aon.com.