Teladoc Health: Transforming telehealth operations with Copilot

Combining innovation and experience for telehealth success

Teladoc Health has been a leader in telehealth for over two decades, long before the COVID-19 pandemic made telehealth mainstream. It offers a wide range of virtual care services, including primary care and chronic condition management. 

The COVID-19 pandemic increased telehealth adoption, but Teladoc’s comprehensive products and strong reputation set it apart. Taylor Rains-Bown, Senior Manager of Business Transformation, states, “We were one of the first in the digital health space, and our breadth of virtual care products is unparalleled.” 

Teladoc faces challenges from rapid growth and acquisitions, leading to siloed processes. Balancing unification, profitability, and high standards of care is crucial. Rains-Bown notes, “Our biggest competition is ensuring comprehensive and best outcomes.” Teladoc focuses on operational excellence and process automation to maintain its competitive edge.  

Maximizing productivity and strategic thinking

Teladoc’s journey toward operational efficiency took a significant leap with the introduction of Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, which has been instrumental in transforming the way the company manages its internal processes and external client interactions. Before the adoption of Copilot, processes were siloed, especially between the commercial client product teams and operations. This led to challenges in integration and communication, making it difficult to deliver on commitments made to clients. Eddie Swafford, Vice President of Operations at Teladoc Health, explains how lack of integration could have a negative impact on the company’s reputation and ability to meet client expectations effectively. “If you’re struggling to keep up with the commitment that was made previously, this makes it more difficult for us to do what we really want to do, which is be a great partner.”  

Rains-Bown discusses how Copilot acts as a personal assistant, handling tasks like note taking during meetings, finding information on specific projects, and proofreading emails. “Copilot is invaluable in ensuring I don’t miss any critical points, and I can focus more on leading the discussion rather than worrying about documenting everything,” she says. “With Copilot, our project management team has become significantly more efficient. We save hours each week on meeting notes and follow-ups, which allows us to tackle more projects and drive change faster.”   

Heather Underhill, Senior Vice President of Client Experience and Operations at Teladoc Health, notes that employees will be able to get started much more quickly with Copilot. “We’re just scratching the surface with onboarding,” she explains. “We envision using Copilot to ingest our desk guides, allowing new employees to ask questions and get immediate answers.” Swafford agrees. “Copilot is not just about saving time; it’s about enabling our employees, especially new ones, to focus on value-added tasks from day one,” he explains. “By using Copilot to automate and streamline the onboarding process, we can help new hires acclimate faster and contribute more effectively.” 

Swafford also highlights Copilot’s role in improving leadership engagement. “Copilot is an invaluable tool I can use to be more productive and engaged with my team,” he says. “The time it saves me each day translates into better leadership and more strategic focus.” He uses Copilot to transcribe meetings, catch up on missed discussions, and prepare for upcoming meetings by summarizing key points from emails and chat messages. “Copilot saves us thousands of hours as an enterprise just through eliminating daily processes—it’s driving operational efficiency across Teladoc,” he says. “By automating routine tasks and providing quick insights, Copilot helps us focus on strategic initiatives and deliver better outcomes for clients. It’s like a personal assistant that never sleeps.” Swafford emphasizes, “I can just simply focus and listen during meetings. That makes you a better leader and ultimately frees you up to be more effective.” 

Revolutionizing the client experience  

Copilot has streamlined Teladoc’s processes through its interoperability with Microsoft Power Automate and Microsoft Power BI, which helps categorize and route client member issues automatically, handles tasks, initiates workflows, synthesizes reports, and sets alerts on key metrics. Underhill explains that clients often face issues with member access to care, billing discrepancies, or reporting requests. “What I find most helpful is actually summarizing these complex issues from a technical answer into a sort of business-oriented executive or client-facing summary.” 

In terms of client services, the reduction in ticket turnaround time has been a major win. Swafford notes that Teladoc uses a platform called Team Support for handling client issues, which primarily allows users to submit issues. “But the real enhancement comes from tying in Power Automate, which is monitoring that inbox, and then it’s looking at everything that comes in and then appropriately routes the issues,” he says. Underhill anticipates that the new system, once fully integrated, will cut the time to resolve tickets from four days to just hours. The company’s services and support teams also use Copilot to effectively categorize and route client member issues automatically. It assists in automating many tasks, from getting workflows started to synthesizing reports and setting alerts on key metrics. Underhill shares how Copilot is used across various operational departments. “On our client services team, we’re using Copilot to help draft responses to common client inquiries by retrieving information from various sources,” she says, explaining how it sends data to a single, accessible database. This not only speeds up response times but also ensures that the answers are accurate and consistent. 

Emily Grimm, Supply Chain Manager at Teladoc Health, says, “Using Copilot in Power Automate and Power BI has helped us save a lot of time by getting newer employees started quickly and answering their questions faster. With Copilot, we don’t have to train everyone on the best way to use Power Automate, and we’re probably getting flows set up and running about 20% more quickly.” Swafford explains how Copilot operates based on employees’ Microsoft Graph, helping ensure that it only accesses information available to that particular employee. Over time, as the employee’s Microsoft Graph expands, the performance of Copilot improves, providing better insights and answers. This setup enhances security by ensuring that Copilot doesn’t access unauthorized information, encouraging users to be mindful of their access permissions. “It encourages us to make sure that we’re cognizant of the information that we have access to, but also the information that we shouldn’t,” Swafford explains. 

Saving thousands of hours every year with Copilot 

The implementation of Copilot has yielded tangible results at Teladoc. The time savings alone are substantial, with team members saving up to five hours per week. It also translates to thousands of saved hours annually, a significant boost for a company of more than 6,000 employees. Swafford explains, “Copilot saves us thousands of hours as an enterprise just through eliminating daily processes—it’s driving operational efficiency across Teladoc like a personal assistant that never sleeps.” 

"This is a game-changer for our client experience," Underhill asserts. “The productivity gains we’ve seen with Copilot are remarkable. It’s helping us integrate our processes and reduce waste, which is crucial for our profitability. With Copilot, we can deliver faster and more accurately, which enhances our client satisfaction.” Swafford adds, “This is just the beginning of what will be an incredible journey with Microsoft and Teladoc.” 

The potential of Copilot extends beyond current applications. Teladoc is exploring how AI tools like Copilot can further revolutionize the healthcare industry. Swafford is particularly excited about using Copilot for Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) transcriptions to improve healthcare documentation. “Copilot could change the game for physicians, reducing the time they spend on documentation so they can focus more on patient care,” he explains. For other companies considering the adoption of Copilot, Underhill offers compelling advice. “Copilot is not just a corporate tool, but a way to retain and recruit employees. It provides value at every level of the organization, from improving efficiency to enhancing employee satisfaction,” she says. 

Teladoc’s experience with Copilot underscores the transformative power of AI in modernizing operations and improving productivity. As the company continues to innovate and integrate these tools, it sets a powerful example for the healthcare industry and beyond. “Copilot is changing the way we work,” says Underhill. “It’s not just about saving time; it’s about enhancing the quality of our work, allowing us to focus on what truly matters: delivering exceptional care to our members.” She concludes, “For me, Copilot has become an essential part of how I operate daily.” 

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