If there’s one thing that almost all employers agree on, it’s that they have a responsibility to support their employees through physical and mental health challenges, pain, and stress at work. In a recent survey of plan sponsors—defined as employers that provide a health benefits package to their employees—more than 90 per cent are making this a priority.1
It’s not just employers that increasingly view virtual healthcare as an imperative, but the workforce too. Three-quarters of employees or plan members who have virtual care as part of their package say that their benefits meet their needs.2 In contrast, the same study demonstrates that only 52 per cent of employees that don’t have virtual care report the same level of satisfaction.
Moreover, 68 per cent of those with access to virtual healthcare attest that their workplace culture promotes wellbeing, while that number is just 39 per cent among those without virtual health benefits.3
Examining research collected by PMG Intelligence, Benefits Canada, and Canada Health Infoway over the past year, this report documents the trends transforming the virtual care landscape for 2023—and what they could mean for the workplace.
Just as engagement and awareness of virtual care services is increasing in the general population, it is also gaining traction in the workplace: In 2021, 51 per cent of employers agreed that virtual care should be a standard group benefits offering. Just one year later, in 2022, that number had grown to 62 per cent.4
This indicates that plan sponsors are more confident in their organizations’ virtual care offerings, and those that chose to include them in their benefits packages are standing by that decision now that they understand the value that virtual care brings. Crucially, the satisfaction rate among plan sponsors when it comes to their organizations’ virtual care offerings reached 88 per cent in 2022, compared to 74 per cent in 2021.5
Today, consensus is growing among employers that employee assistance programs (EAPs) should offer a virtual care component. Among plan sponsors surveyed, four out of five state that they believe this.6 This could be because virtual care can enable employees to more easily attend to their health needs, reducing the disruption of their work or personal time sometimes posed by in-person consultations.
1 PMG Intelligence (April 18, 2023). The Changing Pharmacy and Virtual Care Landscape: An in-depth study of consumers, employers, pharmacists, and group benefits advisors in Canada. Employer / Plan Sponsor research summary, p. 5.
2 Benefits Canada (2022). 2022 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey. Charting New Paths: The role of the workplace and health benefits plans to help navigate a post pandemic world, p. 26.
3 Benefits Canada. Charting new Paths, p. 26.
4 PMG Intelligence (April 18, 2023). The Changing Pharmacy and Virtual Care Landscape: An in-depth study of consumers, employers, pharmacists, and group benefits advisors in Canada. Employer / Plan Sponsor research summary, p. 26.
5 Benefits Canada (2022). 2022 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey. Charting New Paths: The role of the workplace and health benefits plans to help navigate a post pandemic world, p. 34.
6 PMG Intelligence (April 18, 2023). The Changing Pharmacy and Virtual Care Landscape: An in-depth study of consumers, employers, pharmacists, and group benefits advisors in Canada. Employer / Plan Sponsor research summary, p. 26.