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4 Reasons Your Employees Need Virtual Primary Care

Primary care is an often overlooked and underutilized healthcare resource that can have massive impacts on health outcomes, both for your employees and their families. A primary care provider, more commonly known as a PCP, is key to helping an individual stay healthy and improve their quality of life. PCPs can (and should) act as someone's first point of entry into the healthcare system and first line of defense against chronic conditions and serious illness.

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Unfortunately, 1 in 3 people in the US have little to no access to primary care where they live1. Without that access to care, individuals are delaying the care they need, resulting in $730B in annual healthcare costs driven by preventable disease and illness2.

However, with the rise of telemedicine and an increased focus on virtual primary care, you can help connect your employees to the primary care they need and deserve. Here are four reasons employers should offer a virtual primary care solution:

#1: Offer increased accessibility and convenience to primary care

As an employer, incorporating a virtual primary care solution into employee health benefits can open the door for many who may have difficulty accessing any form of primary care. The list of barriers is exhaustive, from provider staffing shortages (resulting in primary care deserts) to lack of health insurance, to an inability to take time off work to attend appointments. These issues are often exacerbated in rural or low-income areas, which contributes to ongoing health equity issues.

One major issue that deters people from engaging in primary care altogether is long and inconvenient wait times. The national average wait time to see a PCP is nearly 30 days3. Because virtual primary care eliminates geographical barriers, your employees have access to providers beyond the ones in their zip code, and therefore may be able to get an appointment faster.

Convenience also plays a role in accessing and prioritizing primary care appointments. Your employees all have unique schedules. It can be difficult for your employees to find the time for regular appointments with their PCP. Virtual primary care allows for more flexibility when planning a visit around individual needs and routines. With virtual care, people can do entire visits from their home or office, whenever and wherever is convenient for them.

#2: Enable employees' to develop ongoing relationships with PCPs

One of the biggest benefits of primary care is the insights a PCP can gather through a continuous relationship. Through regular and ongoing visits, a PCP can help prevent health issues, catch problems before they become severe, manage existing conditions and connect the dots to other care that may be needed. But this won't work as successfully if your employees are delaying or avoiding care.

Virtual primary care is an easier way to have valuable time with a PCP anytime, anywhere. It can also increase the number of interactions your employee has with their primary care team throughout the year. For example, Teladoc Health TDOC has reported that their members have an average of 12-15 care team interactions per year – far better than the once-a-year check-up appointment that has become commonplace for most Americans. Over time, as your employees meet with the same PCP visit by visit, they can establish a trusted relationship with that provider.

#3: Improve long-term outcomes with integrated care

Virtual primary care is an important first step to improving health outcomes for your employees, but care options should not stop there. Sometimes, additional care – including in-person services – may be needed.

Providing integrated care that is straightforward and accessible empowers your employees to manage every aspect of their health without needing to interface with an often-overcomplicated healthcare ecosystem. Strong virtual care offerings will ensure your employees are connected to cost-efficient, high-quality care in their network, and can help connect the dots for your employees to fully utilize other health benefits based on their clinical needs. This integrated model can help with things like lab tests, chronic condition management, cancer screenings, fertility benefits, and mental healthcare.

The integration of physical and mental healthcare is key to improving employee engagement and overall health outcomes. Your employees may be more inclined to take advantage of these benefits if they are conveniently offered in one place, as 78% of consumers prefer one single solution for physical and mental health4. Mental health screenings must be embedded into the primary care intake process, and PCPs should be discussing mental health concerns during regular check-ins. The clinical outcomes demonstrate the power of this integrated approach – at Teladoc Health, we have seen reductions in blood pressure and A1c levels, for example, when our members treat mental and physical health together.

The more integrated the virtual primary care offering is with other healthcare services, the more impactful the outcomes will be on your employees.

#4: Experience long-term savings by catching conditions and diseases earlier

When combining all of these benefits – convenient and accessible primary care, trusting relationships between your employee and their PCP, and integrated care – you can do your part to lower overall healthcare costs.

Our primary care providers at Teladoc have engaged with many members who have not previously had a relationship with a PCP. By providing effective primary care services, they have helped diagnosis these members with chronic conditions for the first time, and enroll them in disease management programs. These vital relationships between an individual and a PCP can help prevent disease state progression, avoid unnecessary and costly trips to the ER, and empower your employees to live healthier lives.

Virtual primary care can be a powerful tool for employers and employees alike, with the possibility of transforming how and when people receive the care they need. In today's complex, costly, and ever-changing healthcare landscape, it's time to give your employees a better shot at better healthcare.

Primary Care Doctors Need Help To Achieve Health Equity

U.S. News & World Report 5/17/2023 Tochi Iroku-Malize

Medical doctor attending to a female patient

I am a family physician, but I also have been a patient impacted by discrimination and inequities in our national health care system. I've experienced times when my symptoms were dismissed, and I was denied appropriate care due to bias.

My story is not uncommon, and that fact alone should be concerning – yet another sign that we are long overdue for a paradigm shift in health care, one in which we recognize, understand and address bias and inequity in medicine.

Fortunately, the best resources to move us toward this goal are already embedded within our health care system: family physicians.

Family physicians form close relationships with patients and their families throughout their lives. We are a trusted source of help and hope for our patients, and we bear witness to social and structural inequities impacting their health. We have a keen awareness of their communities and environments, and because of this, we are uniquely positioned to help bridge equity gaps.

Still, there are essential steps that need to be taken to support primary care in the U.S. As we work to build these bridges. The U.S. Health care system has to recognize the social needs that exist, adequately train physicians to help meet those needs, and secure a more robust and diverse workforce.

I know all too well that many patients experience stark inequities long before they even visit a doctor. Research indicates some 80% of a patient's health is determined by socioeconomic factors, health-related behaviors and the physical environment. To that end, our health care system needs to improve its efforts to recognize how social determinants of health – environmental factors that can give rise to health inequity, including where you live, what you eat, your education level, your housing situation and your access to transportation – affect patients' lives. Meeting patients where they are can help improve health outcomes and reduce care gaps.

Additionally, it's critical that we have a physician workforce reflective of the country's diverse population. Survey results indicate majorities of patients from racial or ethnic minority groups believe it is at least slightly or somewhat important to have a doctor who shares or understands their culture. Patients may be less likely to forgo care if they feel connected with and understood by their physician, and clinicians from diverse backgrounds may have additional insight into specific needs of minority patients. To achieve a more diverse family medicine workforce, we must encourage diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives throughout medical education and cultivate workplaces that not only represent diversity but sincerely embrace, celebrate and promote it as well.

However, we cannot address disparities in health care if there simply aren't enough physicians working in communities that need care the most. We have to invest in programs that will encourage more medical students to choose primary care as a specialty, particularly family medicine. We also need to create opportunities for more physicians to train and work in underserved areas, and increase funding for federal programs that support underserved communities, such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and National Health Service Corps.

Patients gaining better access to health care is just the first step. They also need to understand their health and what services are available to them to make informed decisions about their care needs. Past estimates indicate that while a majority of U.S. Adults possessed an intermediate level of health literacy – the ability to obtain and comprehend information to make informed decisions about their health – only 12% were proficient. These gaps – compounded by bias, discrimination and a pressing need for a diverse physician workforce – create barriers that can be difficult to overcome.

That is why it has never been more important to invest in primary care. The first-ever national primary care scorecard – authored by researchers with the Robert Graham Center and published earlier this year – highlighted that "historic underinvestment and projected workforce shortages threaten the positive impact that primary care can have on the health of the nation." It is a warning that should be heeded.

I believe health care is a human right. I hope that one day in the future we will have equity across our U.S. Health care system, and that social, political, economic and cultural issues will no longer be a barrier to high-quality care.

Family physicians are on the front lines of the fight for health equity – but we can't do it alone.

How Can Primary Care Be Improved In The U.S.?

WASHINGTON -- Are you taking Fridays off at your medical practice? If so, you're not alone, said Ishani Ganguli, MD, a primary care physician at Harvard Medical School in Boston, at a primary care forum here Thursday.

"We see this 20% dip [in office visits on Fridays] -- specialist visits more than primary care visits," Ganguli said at the event sponsored by Primary Care for America. There is also a drop in people coming in to have procedures, lab work, or imaging tests on Fridays.

"It's fascinating because [it shows] that we've designed care around the clinicians," she added. "I would bet that patients prefer to have some procedures on Fridays so they could recover over the weekend, but we're not seeing that. So measuring this may be one step towards centering ourselves more around our patients."

One problem for physicians who want to add weekend and evening hours to their practices is that "the majority of physicians are employed now" rather than running their own practices, said Darilyn Moyer, MD, executive vice president and CEO of the American College of Physicians. "And even though they know that's the right thing to do, they do not have the power at the organization. So I think the message is that the payers and the credentialers and licensers of these organizations need to have more specific rules around funding these important initiatives."

(l-r) Chris Koller, Kameron Matthews, Ishani Ganguli, Darilyn Moyer, Ariel Richardson, and Fritz Busch discuss the future of primary care. (Photo by Joyce Frieden)

Kameron Matthews, MD, JD, chief health officer of Cityblock Health here, said that one of her best experiences with a health provider "was with a dental practice in Chicago that had 7 days a week, 12 hours a day of of scheduled appointments, even on Saturdays and Sundays."

"The fact that we are still fighting a lot of practices to have evening hours, even to 7 p.M. Or Saturday hours" is unfortunate, she said. "For the 18-to-64-year-olds, for the working population and definitely for the underserved population that do not have the ability to take leave, and often have also transportation difficulties -- the appointment alone is not just the inconvenience, it's also the arrival and departure time and the childcare and the like. We need to think about how we say that we're patient-centered, but we're clearly not."

The current state of primary care is "fragile and weakening," said Chris Koller, president of the Milbank Memorial Fund in New York City. He highlighted conclusions from the fund's report on the health of U.S. Primary care, which came out in February:

Payment and investment. "We spend less money on primary care as a portion of our total expenses than any other country," said Koller. "Over the last 10 years, that investment has stayed flat or gone down across all payers -- Medicaid, Medicare, and commercial."

Access. Koller noted that patients who have a "usual source of care" -- regardless of what it is -- have fewer visits to the emergency room, improved health, and better chronic care management. However, "in the U.S. In the last 10 years, the number of people not reporting a usual source of care has gone up from 22% to 29%," he said. The increase is happening across all types of payers, "so it's not just a high deductible issue ... And this is [happening in] a period when insurance access is increasing."

Another part of access is physician and clinician supply, "and we've found there's enormous variation across the country around the number of primary care clinicians and NPs [nurse practitioners] and PAs [physician associates] per capita, and that variation is increasing over time," Koller said. "The regions and communities that are medically underserved areas -- Health Professional Shortage Areas -- those are experiencing greater gaps compared to the rest of the rest of the country."

Workforce training. "The numbers here are really simple," he said. "In 2010, 1 out of 3 doctors were in primary care, but in 2020, our schools are producing 1 out of every 5, so we're not replacing clinicians who are retiring. And we are training our primary care clinicians on the coasts and in hospital settings, rather than in communities in teams. So frankly, our medical education system is failing in terms of giving us the clinicians that we want."

Research. Although people may think that spending only 6% of U.S. Healthcare dollars on primary care is low, "keep in mind that the portion of research money that goes to primary care is 0.2%," said Koller. "So 6% is bad enough, but in terms of where our priorities are -- where we want to learn, where we want to grow -- we're putting nothing in primary care."

Even when medical students receive training in primary care, it may not be the best quality, added Matthews. "Anecdotally, the medical students that I work with regularly -- through both nonprofit as well as past academic experiences -- are also really speaking about the lack of quality to the primary care training that they are receiving."

That includes "extremely negative experiences with the faculty, usually adjunct if it is even community-based, the very negative experiences that they are having with these connections where they automatically step away from their primary care rotations in medical school and say, "There's no way; I would never want that," she said. "So the screening by medical schools of what adjunct faculty they're using, the accountability there, I think needs to be addressed."

Although primary care physicians can't be expected to fix everything wrong with the U.S. Healthcare system, "I'd like to see a payment model that would allow them to fix more problems than they currently can," said Fritz Busch, principal and consulting actuary with the Milliman consulting firm, which sponsored the forum.

For example, although the average office visit is 7 minutes long, "I don't know of any competent professional who can execute their core competency in 7 minutes ... The key element is time."

Correction: This story was updated to clarify that the event sponsor was Primary Care for America, not the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Joyce Frieden oversees MedPage Today's Washington coverage, including stories about Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, healthcare trade associations, and federal agencies. She has 35 years of experience covering health policy. Follow

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