Just over two years ago, Highmark partnered with Spring Health to launch a new mental health platform that gives members easier access to critical services.
The partners are now offering to investigate how the program has worked for their members. In a paper published last month, Highmark researchers reported that by 2025, patients would wait less than two days on average to access an appointment.
Our analysis shows that Spring’s platform was built directly into Highmark’s membership app, and that integration was a key part of making the program work. Spring can build a personalized approach because members can easily discover mental health tools and complete a self-assessment the first time they connect.
The program includes a variety of services tailored to patient needs, from daily health activities to behavioral therapy to crisis support, and is delivered virtually and in-person. Analysis through this model showed that patients with moderate to severe depression achieved remission in an average of four visits.
The paper found that for patients with moderate to severe anxiety, remission was achieved in an average of five visits.
Dr. Doug Henry, Highmark’s medical director of corporate behavioral health, said in an interview with Fierce Healthcare that when he joined the team several years before COVID-19, he was directed to hire more psychiatrists and psychologists to meet the growing need.
That effort allowed the insurer to grow its services by 400%, but it still wasn’t enough to meet demand, he said. And as the pandemic further increased the need for mental health services, the team realized a new approach may be needed to address access.
“As a company, we knew we had to do something big to increase access,” Henry said. “So we started the process of looking at all the different companies that aggregate networks of providers.”
After two years of research, the Highmark team found excellent quality results and identified Spring as the right partner. And once the digital integration was complete, the program officially launched in January 2024, with approximately 51,000 people signing up to the platform in its first year.
Dr. Adam Chekroed, president and co-founder of Spring Health, said this mental health service is an example of insurers truly focusing on mental health, as many patients may have trouble accessing in-network providers or finding one that will be covered in the first place.
She said wait times on average for behavioral health screening appointments nationwide are three to four weeks, and getting patients into appointments sooner will help avoid stigma and other barriers that prevent people from seeking help.
“Highmark is hunkering down while many other payers are hunkering down,” Chekroed said.
One of the study’s standout statistics is that of the 51,000 people enrolled in the program in 2024, 78.5% connected to behavioral health services for the first time.
Henry said these people are likely to have contacted or sought mental health care before, but were unable to find a provider or were unable to afford services.
“That data point is surprising to me and makes me very happy because it shows that I have reduced friction below the point where many people have previously tried and given up to find mental health support,” Henry said.
As the partners look to the future of the program, Henry and Chekrud said artificial intelligence will be a key tool to continue building personalization into the platform.
Mr Chekrode said he would also provide valuable assistance between visits. For example, AI can generate a visit summary that provides important lessons that patients can refer to during their sessions with therapists.
It may also help identify when patients aren’t working on goals or important activities and encourage them to engage, he said.
“The example I like to give is that if you want to get fit, you can’t just go to the gym once every two weeks,” Chekroed said. “It’s not just that. And I think the ability of AI is to bridge the gap between those sessions and make it easier to achieve your goals overall.”
