Health plan members can achieve better health and lower medical costs with primary care, but only if they have adequate access to primary care clinicians. The United States is in the midst of a severe primary care shortage. A recent survey found that primary care appointment wait time is 23.5 days, an increase of 14% over the past three years. One-fifth of the population reports waiting at least two months for a primary care appointment, and wait times will get longer with fewer physicians entering primary care practice. The emergence of virtual care services can improve primary care access for employees, and employers can use the insights of behavioral science to promote virtual care.

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of digital healthcare delivery. Over the past five years there has been an expansion of virtual services across the healthcare continuum, including primary care, chronic condition management, specialty care and mental health. Virtual care requires less employee time away from work and expands access in remote areas while giving minoritized communities better access to concordant providers. Virtual care also generates fewer laboratory and ancillary charges.

6 strategies to enhance virtual care utilization

Employers seeking to expand the use of virtual care can leverage tools of behavioral science to highlight the value and increase use of telehealth for their plan members.

1. Choice architecture: Make it easy for plan members to use virtual care

Humans gravitate toward the path of least resistance, so employers can increase use of virtual care by making it easy to use. Employers can encourage plan members to register for a telehealth account during new hire onboarding, on-site health and benefit fairs, and open enrollment. Proactively initiating the registration process will help ensure that plan members can easily access virtual services when they need them. Employers can offer a link to the telehealth member portal on all relevant employee intranet pages and offer tips on how to access services in corporate communications.

2. Narrative: Tell stories that highlight the benefits of virtual care

People are more likely to take action based on compelling stories rather than dry statistics, and plan members are more likely to seek out virtual care services if they’ve heard positive feedback from peers. Stories of plan members who have benefitted from telehealth access will help others understand ways they can benefit from virtual care. Anecdotes resonate and will be top of mind for plan members if they experience a similar issue and must decide when and how to seek care. Employers should be sure to offer stories of the benefits of virtual care for different personas, including plan members of different ages, genders and races and across different geographies to maximize salience with a diverse audience.

3. Loss aversion: Focus on the gain of choice, rather than the loss of in-person care

Virtual care is not a full replacement for in-person care. Many plan members have longstanding relationships with their in-person providers and are not inclined to seek out alternate paths to care. Telehealth should be viewed as a program enhancement to provide additional value to employees and their families. Plan members who have a strong relationship with their in-person primary care providers may still seek out virtual urgent care services if they fall ill while traveling or have symptoms of an infection and don’t have time to track down the nearest urgent care facility. Similarly, a rural employee who is experiencing a stressful life event may seek out a well-matched tele-behavioral health provider who they can see quickly instead of waiting months and traveling far for an initial consultation. Employees need not forfeit their relationship with their in-person primary care physician to gain the benefit of other types of virtual care.

4. Present bias: Emphasize short-term benefits of virtual care

Behavioral science teaches us that people have a “present bias,” where they overvalue short-term gains while undervaluing longer-term benefits. Therefore, employers can help virtual care gain more traction by emphasizing its short-term benefits. Virtual care is convenient. Plan members can connect with a doctor with just a few clicks of a button. When an illness or injury arises, plan members can secure a virtual urgent care visit in minutes rather than hours or see a virtual primary care or behavioral health provider in days rather than weeks to months. Telehealth also saves time and can keep employees from missing work and losing income.

5. Social networks: Harness community and connection

Humans are social creatures and yearn for connection. Employers can highlight virtual care adoption throughout the organization, making telehealth appealing to diverse social groups. They can communicate how a virtual care vendor’s provider directory enables them to select a provider that resonates with them. For those plan members who have an interest in connecting with others, some virtual chronic disease management programs include synchronous or asynchronous social elements like group chats to provide participants with a community to support healthy behavior change.

6. Fairness: Demonstrate how access to virtual care can improve equity

Virtual care can help bridge the health equity gap by providing convenient access to those who live in healthcare deserts with limited access to care. Telehealth is also more likely to give members access to providers who look like them, regardless of where they live. Virtual care makes a vast provider pool available to plan members to address a wide array of patient needs. Some virtual care providers practice in different time zones than their patients and can easily offer night and weekend availability so that employees don’t have to take time off work.

However, some plan members might not have the technology or digital literacy to benefit from virtual care. Employers can bridge this gap by providing access to technology and offering private space for employees to complete virtual visits at the workplace.

The future of virtual care

Virtual care is an additional avenue to accessing healthcare services and should be positioned as an added value to employees and their families. Telehealth provides convenient and timely access to care, with much shorter time to appointment compared to traditional in-person settings. Employers benefit by reducing employees’ time away from work and preventing unnecessary visits to higher-cost sites of care. Virtual care is here to stay, and employers can play an active role in promoting it to ensure their plan members are deriving optimal value.

Jeff Levin-Scherz, MD, MBA, managing director and population health leader of WTW’s North American Health & Benefits practice, and Julie Noblick, MPH, director in WTW’s Communication and Change Management practice, contributed to this article.