Defining value in virtual primary care
Since 2019, Included Health has led the way in building and scaling a Virtual Primary Care strategy. Today, virtual care utilization has stabilized at levels 38 times higher than before the pandemic, demonstrating that there may be a more permanent shift in how individuals access healthcare going forward. It’s time to expect more for virtual care. It’s no longer enough for virtual care to simply be convenient–it must also deliver meaningful value.
Establishing the standard for assessing value
Our comprehensive Virtual Primary Care solution provides preventive care and chronic condition management, physical and behavioral health, and seamless connections to local, in-network providers as needed. Leveraging our member-centric experience and clinical expertise, we are setting the standard for how employers should be assessing value from virtual care solutions.
Direct savings from virtual care
Primary care, behavioral health, and urgent care generate replacement savings from more expensive in-person visits including existing primary care providers, urgent care visits, or trips to the emergency department.
Even more significant are savings opportunities driven by improved quality of care.
In primary care, downstream quality savings are driven both by the quality of preventive, acute, and chronic care provided by the PCP, but also through these interventions preventing future hospitalizations, reductions in unnecessary specialist visits, better medication management, and more.
With our primary care solution, members have access to both medical and behavioral healthcare. As a number of studies have demonstrated, the coordinated care between medical and behavioral health delivers added value and savings.
Indirect savings from virtual care
Employers deploy a number of benefit and workplace strategies to help keep employees healthy and present.
While not accounted for in our savings model, we also believe that indirect savings can be realized from virtual care to provide an additional layer of value. These savings can be realized by workers remaining healthy and reduced absenteeism.