Telehealth benefits: Should brokers join the movement?

With the way the industry is quickly gravitating towards technology, it’s a good time for brokers to consider adding telehealth coverage options for their clients. So much of life — work, family, entertainment — now takes place online, so it’s no surprise that health care delivery is increasingly happening online as well. In early 2016, the American Telemedicine Association reported that there were 1 million virtual doctor visits in 2015. The Association projected that that number would grow by 20 percent in 2016.

However robust the growth rate, virtual visits represent a very small proportion of the 922.6 million recorded doctor visits in 2013 by the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Still, there are several reasons to believe that telemedicine is on an upward trajectory.