More Employers Are Paying For Telemedicine, But Enrollee Take-Up Has Been Relatively Low

Telemedicine – the delivery of health services by providers at remote locations, such as through video conferencing or remote monitoring – has been seen as a way to possibly improve access to care while also lowering costs. In our 2018 Employer Health Benefit Survey, we find that the share of large employers offering health plans that cover telemedicine has increased significantly from 2015 – 2018. In this corresponding brief, we use employer claims data to measure the uptake of these services by employees and their family members.

The analysis of part of the Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker, an online information hub dedicated to monitoring and assessing the performance of the U.S. health system.