Summus Global Survey Reveals Human Resources Professionals Are Prioritizing Virtual Healthcare Solutions in 2021

NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Summus Global, the leading virtual specialist platform, announced today the results of a proprietary survey of human resources professionals' opinions on virtual healthcare solutions. The study reveals new insights into what factors hold the most importance when choosing a virtual care platform for employee benefits packages, their level of satisfaction with current solutions, and their plans for future program implementations.

Results from the proprietary survey demonstrate that 50 percent of HR professionals have changed their outlook toward offering virtual care solutions to their employees amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the top three factors they care most about when evaluating a solution are the quality of the doctors, cost/ROI, and user experience. The survey also revealed insights about second opinion program utilization, including the typical utilization these programs receive (2-4 percent on average).

"The pandemic has exponentially accelerated the adoption of virtual health solutions, including for specialty care," said Julian Flannery, Founder and CEO of Summus Global. "This study shows that network quality, access to Centers of Excellence, and a quantifiable impact on employees' well-being are most important to HR decision makers as they consider adding virtual solutions. The market is also telling us there is room for innovation in virtual specialty care to broaden impact across the continuum of care." 

Additional results from the survey revealed trends, including:

• Majority have a virtual care solution in place: Half (53 percent) of human resources professionals said their company's employees currently have access to a third-party virtual healthcare solution, and 63 percent said their employees are satisfied with the virtual care platform(s) they currently have access to.

• Increased focus on virtual specialty care: Six in 10 HR professionals (60 percent) have a positive view on virtual specialty care, either saying they currently have plans to implement a virtual care solution focused on speciality care in 2021 (33 percent) or would consider such a plan (26 percent).
• HR professionals' top three reasons for considering a virtual care solution in specialty care are access to leading doctors (53 percent), employee impact (50 percent), and managing high-cost claimants (41 percent).
• 76 percent of HR professionals said having access to Centers of Excellence for more complex, high-cost diagnoses is important to them.

• Quality is ranked most important: Quality of doctors was ranked most important to HR professionals when choosing a virtual healthcare platform for their companies, followed by cost/ROI, user experience, breadth of diagnoses supported, and customer testimonials/references.

• Second opinion market untapped, with programs driving low utilization: Less than a quarter (22 percent) of HR professionals currently have a second opinion program in place, while 27 percent don't have a current plan but would consider implementing one.
• Of those respondents that currently have a second opinion program in place, the majority (72 percent) see a utilization rate of 4 percent or lower.

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States from December 29, 2020 - January 4, 2021 among 258 U.S. adults ages 18 and older who work in human resources.

About Summus Global
Summus Global, the leading virtual specialist platform, empowers families by providing access to a network of 4,000+ top specialists across 48 leading hospitals -- within days, from anywhere in the world. The Summus model sets a new standard for speed of access to high-quality medical expertise and drives industry-leading engagement with employers. Pioneering the future of corporate health benefits, Summus Global partners with companies across the country to create an elevated healthcare experience for their employees and to support better, cost-efficient outcomes across all health questions and stages of care. Learn more: https://summusglobal.com

Media Contact:
Renee Rossi
[email protected]

SOURCE Summus Global

Related Links

https://summusglobal.com