About 50 million adults in the U.S. have a mental illness, but more than half are unable to receive treatment. A common barrier is the lack of behavioral health providers who are in network with insurers.
Behavioral health company UpLift is looking to move the needle on this stat by expanding access to care through its virtual platform. The Tampa, Florida-based company works with national and regional payers, serves patients ages 13 years and older (as well as couples and families) and supports those struggling with trauma, stress, gender and sexual identity, loss of a loved one and other issues. It matches them with a therapist and psychiatrist for virtual sessions, and these therapists and psychiatrists often work together through shared clinical data. Now, the company is looking to grow its platform after raising $10.7 million in Series A financing, it announced last week.
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The Series A funding round was led by Ballast Point Ventures and included participation from Kapor Capital, Front Porch Ventures and B Capital. In total, UpLift has raised more than $22 million. Digital mental health companies raised about $2.6 billion in 2022 and $5.5 billion in 2021, according to CB Insights. There are a plethora virtual mental health solutions, though their benefits are not always well-proven.
Ballast Point Ventures chose to invest in UpLift after recognizing the dire need for more mental health support.
“We have long been interested in investing in the behavioral health segment of the healthcare industry, especially as we saw access to mental health services become even more of a challenge during the pandemic,” said Matt Rice, partner at Ballast Point Ventures, in a statement. “We are inspired by UpLift’s team-based approach to care, which combines therapy with psychiatry.”
With the financing, the company plans to offer its services in more states, said Kyle Talcott, UpLift CEO, in an email. UpLift currently serves patients in Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
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It will also use the funds to “expand beyond just Commercial and Medicare” and work with Medicaid health plans, Talcott said. In addition, the company is investing in providing in-person care to complement its virtual services, as well as its technology, which will “enable us to scale better quality care more efficiently,” he added.
The mental health company also announced that it is contracting with AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia, a Medicaid managed care health plan. UpLift primarily makes its revenue through fee-for-service contracts with value-based care incentives with payers. These incentives include proper use of clinical assessments and medication adherence. Other payers the company works with include Anthem, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare and CareFirst.
UpLift was built at Redesign Health, a healthcare innovation company. Another company in the space is Headway, a platform that works with payers and connects patients with independent mental health practitioners. However, UpLift differs by being a “provider of care, not just an enablement of others,” Talcott declared. It also differentiates itself by enabling collaboration between therapists and psychiatrists, he added.
“Unlike other network models, we have a team-based therapy and psychiatry care model. Therapists and psychiatric providers are working together — from communications to shared clinical data — to deliver the best care possible,” Talcott said.
Additional digital mental health companies include Headspace Health (which works with payers and employers and offers meditation, therapy and psychiatry) and Talkspace (which offers therapy and psychiatry and services payers, employers and consumers).
Photo credit: Bohdan Skrypnyk, Getty Images
