A new behavioral health company called Lucet launched Thursday and aims to improve navigation to mental health services for health plan members.
Overland Park, Kansas-based Lucet was born out of the 2022 merger between New Directions Behavioral Health, a provider of behavioral health solutions, and Tridiuum, a digital behavioral health company. Lucet combines New Directions’ expertise on the services side of mental health with Tridiuum’s expertise on the technology side, said Shana Hoffman, president and CEO of Lucet.
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The new company also unveiled its core offering called Navigate & Connect. Members of Lucet’s customers begin with a screening to assess their behavioral health needs. They’re also able to give their preferences based on language, ethnicity and more. Then the company’s care navigators are able to directly schedule the member into care with an in-network clinician, whether that’s in person or virtually. The platform is integrated with provider systems, such as EHRs and practice management systems, which allows care navigators to see the providers’ availability. Appointments are typically scheduled within five days, Hoffman said.
“The primary goal there is working with health plans who are trying to get their members connected into behavioral healthcare and being able to be that behavioral health optimization company for those health plan partners,” she stated.
Lucet also offers a 24-hour crisis support line for those needing immediate intervention. Additionally, health plans can receive real-time insight on member demand, care quality, outcomes, network supply and performance.
The company already works with some Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans, including Florida Blue. Navigate & Connect has proven successful for the payer, said Chuck Divita, executive vice president of commercial markets, GuideWell and Florida Blue.
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“Lucet’s Navigate & Connect solution quickly drove material positive impact on our behavioral health offerings, and we expect that the value and support it delivers to our members will continue to expand over time,” Divita said in a news release.
Research shows that over half of adults with a mental illness do not receive treatment. Even those who are able to access care sometimes have to wait more than three months for an appointment. Lucet aims to change that by streamlining the behavioral health navigation process, Hoffman said.
“If you have a person who’s presenting with a [behavioral health] need, you want to be able to close the loop for that member and get them connected into care in that moment,” she said. “You don’t want to kind of pass them around somewhere.”
Looking ahead, Lucet is working to bring in more health plan partners and increase behavioral health utilization among their members, Hoffman said.
“When we look at health plans, we think there should be many more people utilizing behavioral health and who would benefit from care,” she stated. “We have goals at the organization to drive up behavioral health utilization and get more members into care, particularly members that have co-occurring chronic disease conditions where we see a huge benefit.”
Companies that operate in a similar space to Lucet include Headway and Magellan Health.
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