More Companies Offer Telehealth; Now Workers Need to Use It

If you had a sore throat, would you conduct an online visit with a doctor? Your employer hopes you would.

Many large employers are offering a telehealth, also called telemedicine, component in their benefits package—medical care by physicians or other health-care professionals provided over an Internet or phone-video system—and the number is projected to grow. According to a recent study from the National Business Group on Health, 90 percent of large employers will offer telehealth services in 2017 and 97 percent will offer them by 2019.

“We’re seeing ...