Every year during annual enrollment, you eat, drink, and breathe health care benefits. Then once annual enrollment is done, you probably stop thinking entirely about benefit implementations. But this would be a mistake. Sometimes ancillary benefits actually can and should be implemented off-cycle. Telemedicine is a great example. It’s an easy, money-saving program that can actually be beneficial to implement outside of the regular plan renewal period. Here are three reasons you should consider implementing telemedicine today, instead of waiting for the next annual enrollment period:

1. Implementation is easy

A lot of benefits are complicated and can be a real headache for Human Resources departments. With all of the paperwork, trainings, meetings, and long onboarding cycles, adding a benefit midyear may seem like more effort than it’s worth. But not with telemedicine and TelaCare Health Solutions. We make it easy to implement and onboard employees to our telemedicine program. So even when HR has other pressing priorities, telemedicine can be implemented quickly and easily. All that’s needed is a census of eligible employees. We take care of the rest.

The same goes for employee communications. TelaCare Health Solutions designs and executes a custom communication strategy for your employees. It’s a 12-month campaign that takes them through onboarding and helps build awareness about the program and it’s benefits throughout the year. Plus, our solution is easy for employees to use. Once they get their materials, they can simply call their telemedicine number and begin using the program. There’s no program to download, and there’s no consultation fee or co-pay.

2. We’ll save you money this year

The sooner you start using telemedicine, the sooner you can start saving money on healthcare claims. Since employees can use the benefit as soon as it’s implemented, the company saves money as soon as the first employee uses telemedicine instead of visiting an urgent care clinic. Most benefits don’t work this way. But with telemedicine, you don’t have to wait until next year’s benefit renewal to save the company and the employees money. Savings can start right after implementation. Wouldn’t you like to reduce costs this year? 

3. You can get higher engagement

A telemedicine program’s success (and savings) depends largely on the utilization rate of the benefit. Since annual enrollment is a busy time for everyone, employees and HR alike, adding a new ancillary benefit like telemedicine during this time means it may not get the attention it deserves. It can easily get lost in the shuffle of all the other benefit information. But this means your program may end up not being as effective as it could be. On the other hand, if you enroll off cycle, employees will pay more attention to this new benefit being provided.

Since telemedicine is a new benefit for a lot of people, employee communication is especially important. Employees need to be educated on how, why, and when to choose telemedicine for their medical needs. Getting people to change their health care habits is not an easy task. That’s why you need a communication campaign that educates and build awareness, without being lumped into all the other medical benefits information. 

With telemedicine, just providing the benefit isn’t enough. Employees need to actually use it for it to provide value. By implementing off-cycle, you ensure that employees pay attention to telemedicine. And we give them the tools they need to start effectively using this new benefit to provide more convenient, affordable care for themselves and their families.

4. Don’t delay

Don’t wait until the next enrollment cycle to implement a telemedicine benefit. Not only is it easy to implement TelaCare any time of the year, it can actually be more beneficial to implement this solution off-cycle. The regular enrollment season can be too busy to generate the employee awareness that this solution needs to reach its highest potential. The higher the utilization, the more benefit the company and the employees get from the program.

And with TelaCare, we make it easy for you and your company to implement and on-board our program. Your company and employees could be realizing all of the benefits of telemedicine this year. Don’t delay!