Telemedicine is here to stay, and you should know how it works. That was the consensus at the Workplace Benefits Renaissance in Atlantic City, N.J., in February. In fact, it can save your clients money while increasing your voluntary sales. “I have a client who saved $1.2 million last year via telemedicine,” said John Conkling, a panelist at the show and vice president of Fringe Benefit Group in Austin, Texas. “It’s instead of employees going to the ER.”
The concept of telemedicine, defined by the American Telemedicine Association as the use of electronic communications from one site to the other, isn’t new. In fact, it’s been around for nearly 40 years, initially using phones to connect people with medical conditions in remote or rural areas with their physicians. It’s now evolved to video, email, smart phones, even a social media network. And it’s no longer just for those who are miles from the nearest hospital.
