How virtual specialty care provides answers and human connection
By guiding employers to virtual specialty care, we guide the benefits industry toward a more economical, sustainable, and people-centric future.
To complicate matters further, a trifecta of rampant viruses—COVID, flu, and RSV—are hammering the health care system, leaving patients desperate for answers. These patients are attempting to use their employer provided health care benefits, and want their health questions and concerns answered by a high caliber, knowledgeable doctor—but they are not receiving the prompt attention and expertise they require.
As employees struggle to make appointments, they are limited by the capacity of the health care system in their own geography, at exactly the time when they are most concerned about viruses and underlying health conditions that could cause them real harm. Access to high quality, affordable medical expertise is needed now, more than ever.
Access and answers
Today’s most advanced health care technology, virtual specialty care, can relieve pressure on the health system, speed access to care, and restore the value of employer-provided health care benefits. Virtual specialty care provides access within days to the nation’s leading doctors across more than 120 specialties and subspecialties, and it operates independently of the geographic factors of health system capacity.
Virtual specialty care helps employees access the health care benefits employers have already paid for, but it does more than that: It brings greater efficiency to health care (getting employers “even more for their money”) while delivering a sustained, supportive connection between employees and physicians. Virtual specialty care serves as the clinical front door for employee health concerns ranging from allergies to complex cancer diagnoses.
A recent survey by Summus found most U.S. adults visit specialists frequently, and 87% are satisfied meeting their specialist in a virtual setting. This highlights the opportunity for virtual specialty care to provide a meaningful and lasting benefit to employees. Survey results also revealed that Americans want more quality time with doctors, reinforcing the need for stronger patient-provider relationships that support better health outcomes.
Not just fast, but personal
Virtual specialty care provides frictionless access to broad and deep networks of leading specialists, for any health question or condition, at any level of illness, knowledge, or experience. Employers purchase membership in a virtual specialty care network as an employment benefit. And since this benefit centers around access, support, and human connection, it not only improves health, but ensures that employees feel seen, heard, and understood. The advantages of access to virtual specialty care are numerous:
- Personalized response and plans. Rather than the general, templated guidance provided by a brochure or app, virtual specialty care uses human health guides and specialists to understand employees’ specific health concerns and develop personalized plans in response.
- Convenient scheduling. Employees can request convenient appointment days and times—even outside of traditional working hours—to meet with a specialist for medical advice. What’s more, appointments are scheduled in just a few days instead of months.
- Option to see a specialist “like me.” Employees no longer need to choose the specialist who is geographically closest, but instead can select a leading specialist based on other factors important to them, including race, ethnicity, or cultural tradition. The ability to select a doctor based on these elements of fit improves trust and rapport in the patient-provider relationship—and the insights of a shared ethnic or cultural tradition can sometimes lead to quicker diagnoses and better outcomes.
- Better health literacy. Virtual specialty care cuts through complex jargon and terminology by putting humans at the center of every health care interaction, providing education, tools and resources tailored to each employee’s needs. Upwards of 95% of specialists hold academic teaching positions, so they are accustomed to helping employees learn the specifics of their own health concerns and grow more skillful.
- Integrated family and caregiver support. Family members and caregivers, even if geographically distant, can participate in health care appointments, supporting their loved ones while also receiving education that aids in continuity of care.
- Improved equity. Instead of a point solution designed to support a particular demographic, condition, or body part, virtual specialty care serves all employees no matter their identity or biology. Virtual specialty care is a high quality, all-inclusive starting point for improving health no matter the health condition or concern.
Employees value human connection and timely answers from the best of the best in medicine, which supports engagement in their health and in the workplace. The option to engage with virtual high-quality medical expertise results in reduced health care costs and fewer emergency department and urgent care visits. Plus, employees develop the knowledge and skill needed to navigate the complexities of the healthcare system, granted by physicians who, in return, value the opportunity to get back to the art of medicine by helping people.
Virtual specialty care is a universally satisfying benefit that provides fast access across the continuum of health questions and journeys—and which restores the human connection in health care at a time when the system is strained and employees long for access to specialists who can help them. By guiding employers to virtual specialty care, we guide the benefits industry toward a more economical, sustainable, and people-centric future.
Julian Flannery is the CEO of Summus.