Great-West Life Pilots Virtual Healthcare Platform Dialogue
Insurance can be a hard-to-navigate beast sometimes, but Great-West Life wants to change that.
The insurance provider is now the first national insurer in Canada that offers virtual healthcare service as employers in Ontario and Quebec pilot Dialogue, an online platform that provides integrated health assistance. The new virtual offering is bilingual and gives employers a cutting-edge service that connects their employees to medical professionals who can diagnose a number of conditions, provide advice, make a referral or write prescriptions.
Dialogue is available through web or a mobile app and lets employees in participating group benefits plans chat with nurses and see physicians through secure video consultations. The platform can be accessed in any location, seven days a week, saving the time spent waiting in-line for non-urgent care.
“Employers want to offer benefits that can meet the needs of a diverse workforce while proactively supporting their employees’ wellness and productivity,” says Jeff Macoun, executive VP for Group Customer at Great-West Life.
“We’re piloting Dialogue with employers and their employees because we believe it helps them to achieve both objectives. Our investments in technology and innovation are not just to improve processes and provide faster service, but more importantly, to empower our customers to better achieve financial, physical and mental well-being.”
The pilot with Dialogue will last one year and is open to companies in Ontario and Quebec. It extends to include their employees who may be based in Alberta, B.C. and Nova Scotia. There are no setup fees, and plans for employers start at $15 a month per employee in the company. The larger the employer, the cheaper the service.
Great-West Lifeco, the parent company to Great-West Life, has interests in Dialogue through Portag3 Ventures. Portag3 is backed by a corporate partnership between Great-West Lifeco and other large organizations, and Portag3 have invested in Dialogue in the past.
“We are delighted to work with Great-West Life in our mission to provide a one tap premium healthcare experience, accessible to all,” says Cherif Habib, co-founder and CEO of Dialogue. “By helping employers foster a more engaged workforce and optimize better work-life balance for their employees, we project this collaboration will enable us to reach over a million Canadians.”
Great-West Life is one of the largest insurers in Canada, serving the financial security needs of over 13 million people across Canada with its subsidiaries London Life and Canada Life.
