Peace of mind. Time. Money.
Telemedicine promises all three. Its aim is to help family caregivers help their loved ones off-site. That aid can be a retirement security lifeline, since, as it happens, many people are having to leave work or cut back on their hours to take care of elderly or incapacitated loved ones. They have no choice.
Whether it’s a web-connected pill bottle that can let a daughter know at her desk if mom has taken her medicine or a Skype doctor visit showing that a wound has healed (and keeping a son from spending hours accompanying dad to a clinic), tele-health technology can be one of the most helpful “co-workers” a job-bound family caregiver can have.
Forfeiting Work And Wages
Family caregivers frequently forfeit hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages, pensions, health insurance and Social Security benefits by quitting or reducing hours on their jobs to help incapacitated loved ones. Thus, the potential for telemedicine to bolster their retirement security is real.
A joint study by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP two years ago found that 45 percent of the self-employed gave up work entirely, chose early retirement, reduced work hours or took a less-demanding job when they became family caregivers.
For those working for an employer, the figure was 29 percent.
With rising co-pays, an unabating wallet-eating trend, the savings that telemedicine offers, even for a single visit, is considerable.
The estimates are that emergency visits cost an average of $700 and physician’s office visits cost $150.
A telemedicine session, by contrast, is a fraction of the cost at $40, according to the National Business Group on Health.