At a time when children and families are increasingly in need of mental health support, Evernorth Health Services said it will offer behavioral health provider Brightline’s services to its employer clients.
The two companies announced Wednesday that Brightline will be part of Evernorth’s health network. St. Louis-based Evernorth is the pharmacy, care and benefits solution of The Cigna Group. San Mateo, California-based Brightline, is a virtual behavioral health provider that specializes in care for children, teens and families.
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Brightline’s services are now available to all of Evernorth’s employer clients across all 50 states, as well as Cigna’s customers who receive health coverage through their employer or marketplace exchange plans. These services include educational content about mental health concerns, interactive exercises, one-on-one coaching and care with therapists and psychiatrists.
“We provide a digital front door to allow families or caregivers to come in to understand a bit more about what their child might need,” said Haleigh Tebben, chief commercial officer at Brightline.
Evernorth will pay Brightline for its services based on members’ utilization of its services rather than a per member per month model, Tebben said.
Evernorth chose to work with Brightline because it fills a “particular niche” by serving younger age groups — as young as one and half years old — said Dr. Stuart Lustig, national medical executive for provider partnerships at Evernorth.
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“We also liked the flexibility of the model, which includes a combination of coaching for parenting, but can also be enhanced with direct clinical services when necessary, including pharmacology in cases when that may be needed for certain conditions. It’s a flexible solution with a broad range of options.”
Younger populations are facing unprecedented challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, a recent Evernorth report itself found that suicide-related diagnoses in children and adolescents increased 14% since before the pandemic, and this age group accounts for 35% of all Americans with these diagnoses.
Evernorth’s research tracks with recent CDC data, which found that in 2021, 42% of high school students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in the previous year. Additionally, 22% of high school students seriously considered suicide. Students who identify as female or lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning or another non-heterosexual identify are especially struggling.
“As the pandemic fades and we see Covid lessening to some extent, the crisis of mental health is certainly not fading,” Lustig said. “That is still a pandemic at this point and particularly for kids — young kids as well as older kids, adolescents and their families.”
Brightline aims to improve clinical metrics via the Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17, a questionnaire that examines psychosocial problems in children ages 4 to 17 years, as well the General Anxiety Disorder-7 questionnaire, which is used to measure anxiety. Brightline also looks to reduce parental stress, which is self-reported by the parents.
“We’re tracking parental stress to understand, ‘Is the intervention helping relieve stress for the parents?’” Tebben said. “Are they getting less stress in their lives because of it?”
Brightline is in a crowded space when it comes to virtual mental health. Other companies include Lyra Health, Spring Health and Modern Health. However, while these companies do offer support for younger populations, they don’t specifically focus on that age group.
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