Payers are increasingly offering telemedicine services in an effort to reduce unnecessary hospital visits and overall healthcare costs.
WellPoint recently began offering telemedicine services for minor ailments to 4 million of its members, and Aetna has announced plans to expand the number of people able to access its telemedicine services from 3 million to 8 million next year, according to a Bloomberg report. Smaller insurers are also following the trend — last month, Williamsville, N.Y.-based Independent Health announced plans to offer telemedicine services to its members starting in 2015.
These insurers are mostly partnering with large telemedicine companies such as Teladoc and American Well to provide the telemedicine services, according to Bloomberg.
In a growing number of cases, the telemedicine services are offered in collaboration with large employers. According to a report in Entrepreneur, 18 percent of large companies now include telemedicine in their employee health insurance plans, up from 15 percent in 2012.
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