Highmark Health and Spring Health have partnered to launch Mental Well-Being, a mental health solution powered by Spring Health that will be available to some of Highmark’s members, the companies announced Monday during HLTH 2023 in Las Vegas.
New York City-based Spring Health is a mental health company for employers and health plans. It offers meditation, coaching, therapy, medication and other services. Highmark Health, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the parent company of Highmark Inc., Allegheny Health Network, enGen and Helion. It provides health insurance for about 7 million people.
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Starting in 2024, eligible Highmark members will be able to access Mental Well-Being through the My Highmark member platform, which is a digital front door that helps members access various healthcare services, including urgent care and primary care (and was announced last year at HLTH). The Mental Well-Being solution will begin with an assessment screen that tests for the acuity of several mental health conditions, including generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and others.
With the assessment, “what we’re doing is trying to get an understanding of the members’ goals, maybe any symptoms that are presented and the life events that are occurring,” said Kelli Morrison, vice president of health plans and channel partnerships at Spring Health, during an interview. “The assessment is dynamic and actually follows members’ particular journeys so that we can dive deeper into the specific conditions that are present at that time and the acuity level. Then we’re stratifying members based on their high, low, medium risk.”
Members will then receive a personalized care plan, which may include in-person or virtual therapy, medication management, meditation or other services. They’re able to see a provider in less than three days, Morrison declared. Members will also have access to 24/7 crisis support. The solution is available to those in ACA, fully insured and Medicare plans, according to Dr. Anil Singh, senior vice president and executive medical director of population and curated health at Highmark Health. This accounts for about 2.8 million members.
Highmark Health selected Spring Health as a partner because it “checked all the boxes” of what the organization was looking for in a mental health solution, Singh said. He didn’t say what other mental health companies Highmark evaluated, but others include Lyra Health and Headspace.
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“It’s personalized, it’s precise in how we reach members,” he said in an interview. “The other part was the deep integration within our digital front door through the My Highmark app.”
Spring Health will be paid through the partnership by submitting claims for its services, Singh added.
By launching the partnership, the companies hope to both reduce mental health stigma as well as improve access to support, Singh said.
Photo: metamorworks, Getty Images
