This week we're speaking to Lou Daniels, CEO and founder of Consult-A-Doctor Plus (CADR+), a premiere telemedicine program that uses state-of-the-art, secure technology to deliver accessible healthcare services at a fraction of the price of traditional doctor office, urgent care, or ER visits. Telemedicine or teleheath is defined by the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) as "remote healthcare technology to deliver clinical services." This can include anything from medical providers consulting by phone to robotic surgery from a remote location. More than 60% of health plans now include telehealth, with the ATA estimating that about 10 million Americans had a medical service provided remotely last year.
We spoke to Lou about the benefits of telemedicine and how it's helping both employers and employees take control over their healthcare and associated costs. In addition, we have partnered with CADR+ to provide you with an opportunity to add the telemedicine program to your own employee health plans while also offering the service to your insureds and clients. We're so excited about this service and its benefits that our parent company, Neilson Marketing Services, is providing the program as a value-added benefit to our own employees. Neilson Marketing is also the exclusive distributor of the CADR+ telemedicine program for insurance agents and agencies.
Lou is a 32-year insurance industry veteran. In addition to his career as a producer and then an insurance company executive, he also helped pioneer banks in the insurance industry, helping several large institutions develop and grow their own insurance platform. Working for several high-profile firms, including Marsh, Wells Fargo, and Willis, Lou left Wall Street to form a consulting firm, Providence Financial Group, where he was introduced to Consult-A-Doctor. Lou helped CADR differentiate itself in telemedicine by providing the best product, pricing, and technology in the field. CADR+ is powered by Teledoc, the first and largest provider of telehealth services in the United States.
Annie George (AG): Please give us an overview of telemedicine in general.
Lou Daniels (LD): "Telemedicine offers on-demand, 24/7, 365-days-a-year access to physicians from anywhere via phone, video, or app for common conditions. With telemedicine, instead of incurring out-of-pocket copay and deductible expenses and taking the time needed to go to the doctor, urgent care, or ER, you have immediate access to state-licensed, experienced doctors for diagnoses and, if needed, prescriptions and refills for common and non-emergent medical conditions. These include sinus problems, UTIs, pink eye, bronchitis, nasal congestion, allergies, flu, cough, upper respiratory infections, and ear infections.
"From the convenience of your home, or if you're on a business trip or vacationing, you can call a doctor and within minutes you'll be able to consult with him or her, be diagnosed, and have a remedy. You feel better sooner and won't need to take the time to visit a doctor's office. Plus, you save money. If you have children, they'll be back at school or out playing a lot faster. If you get sick late at night or on the weekends and are unable to contact your physician, you don't have to go an urgent care center or the emergency room, both very expensive models of care. With telemedicine, you'll have access to a Board-certified physician who will take care of you faster and less expensively. The average emergency room cost in a hospital is $1,000; the average urgent care cost is $195.00; and the average office visit is $100.00. By using telemedicine you use less traditional insurance saving you and your employer time and money!
The entire premise behind telemedicine is that early intervention makes for more productive, healthier people. When you are sick you can't work or you end up working at 60% to 70% of your capacity. Your employer gets less of you or none of you, as you end up staying home. If you're on vacation, it ends up costing you, too. What's more, 73% of illnesses can be handled with telemedicine, according to the American Medical Association (AMA). And, 66% of all emergency room visits are for non-urgent care matters. In fact, the number-one reason individuals go to the ER is for ear infections. Think about how expensive that ear infection is when visiting the ER."
AG: How does telemedicine work?
LD: "When you call in, a health advocate will first ask what your health issue is. You'll be asked for your ID number, and your health data will be accessed. The advocate will confirm your location to ensure that you connect with a doctor in your state. Shortly after, a physician will call you - the average callback time is 14 minutes. At that time, the doctor will pull up your profile and prescription history, which is accessible once you register with the telemedicine program. You'll speak to the doctor about your illness. The average time you'll spend talking with the physician is 15 minutes. The average time spent in a doctor's office is four to five minutes and that is after the time you spend in the waiting room."
AG: Who are the doctors?
LD: "At CADR+, we have a pool of hundreds of doctors on call, with about half coming from hospitals that sign up with us. The other 50% are internists, family practitioners, or physicians who are semi-retired and looking to keep up their practice a couple of times a week. Our doctors are paid on a per-call basis. They are not paid to write a prescription or incentivize other than to pick up the phone. All our doctors are U.S.-based and Board-Certified, with a minimum of 15 years of experience." You will always get a doctor in the state you reside.
AG: What are the benefits of employers providing and paying for a telemedicine program for their employees?
LD: "Telemedicine offers employers greater ROI as employees end up utilizing less of their traditional insurance. This means there are fewer claims and lower claims administration costs. In fact, an employer's health insurance costs can be reduced by 25% or greater, depending on the utilization of the telemedicine program. The key is to get employees to use the program, to educate them on the benefits of telemedicine for them and their families. Once they begin using the service and realize they'll be paying fewer co-pays and deductibles and will have greater access to medical care, they'll be incentivized to turn to telemedicine for common, non-emergency conditions.
"Moreover, telemedicine doesn't replace the employees' health plan...it's a value-added benefit offered by the employer so that all parties can gain control over medical costs and rising health insurance costs. This is even more important today with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and employers looking for ways to lessen the blow of continually shifting the costs of healthcare to employees."
AG: What are the benefits of insurance agents offering telemedicine to insureds and prospects?
LD: "The hardest thing to do year after year is to attract new customers or retain existing clients. Telemedicine provides insurance agents with an opportunity to create a new conversation, to show employers how they can save money - particularly now with the ACA putting such a huge spotlight on healthcare. Every individual employer is scratching his or her head on what to do.
"Agents can now offer a solution to customers who have seen their employer health plans rise and have been forced to increasingly shift the cost of health insurance to employees year after year through high-deductible health plans and high co-pays. Telemedicine not only saves the employer money, but it also mitigates the pain for employees who have greater out-of-pocket expenses due to their deductibles and copays. Employees will turn to telemedicine for common conditions and far less so to their traditional healthcare plans.
"As an example, a large client of ours was saving 6% on their medical spend by going from a $1,000 to $2,500 deductible for individuals and $5,000 per family on their healthcare plan. The savings was $350,000, which is significant. They wanted to provide the employees with added value to offset the deductible increase. They chose our telemedicine program at a cost of $7,000 month and rolled out the value-added benefit along with the health plan's deductible increase. They acknowledged that by raising the deductible it would be harder for employees to meet their out-of-pocket costs and explained that by using our telemedicine program, these costs would be lower.
"This is a creative approach for agents. It gives customers a sound solution to consider and allows agents to provide employers and employees with real savings as they make other changes to their health plans. It's also a strong selling tool for gaining new customers.
"What's more, telemedicine offers a new recurring revenue stream for agents with the commissions they'll receive for every employer that signs up for the service. The program bolts on to any insurance plan, with some insurance carriers even providing a credit if employers choose to use the service. It's a program that property/casualty agents can offer to their business clients whether or not they write the health insurance plans. There is no change to the plan or to the current broker.
"Think of telemedicine as wellness program that helps bolster employee productivity with easier and faster access to quality care. It helps reduce workplace absenteeism due to early intervention and employees taking less time off for doctor visits and recovery time. And it provides savings."
CADR+ can be provided to each employee and up to five of his or her family members. There is special pricing available through Neilson Marketing Services. To find out more about CADR+ and how you can offer telemedicine for your own employees and/or to begin offering the service to your customers, please visit: http://www.neilsonmarketing.com/telemedicine. You can also call (855) 712-8799.