Just over two years ago, Highmark joined forces with Spring Health to launch a new mental well-being platform that made it far easier for members to access critical services.
Now, the partners are offering a look at how that program has worked for members. In a paper published last month, researchers at Highmark reported that patients waited less than two days on average in 2025 to access an appointment.
Spring's platform is embedded directly into Highmark's member app, and that integration was a key part of what made the program work, according to the analysis. Members can easily find mental well-being tools and complete a self-assessment upon connecting for the first time, which allows Spring to build a personalized approach.
The program includes an array of services tailored to patient's needs, ranging from daily wellness activities to behavioral therapy and crisis support, offered both virtually and in-person. Through the model, the analysis found that individuals with moderate-to-severe depression achieved remission in an average of four appointments.
For those with moderate-to-severe anxiety, remission was achieved in five visits on average, according to the paper.
Doug Henry, Ph.D., medical director for enterprise behavioral health at Highmark, told Fierce Healthcare in an interview that when he joined the team a few years before COVID-19, he was given a directive to ramp up hiring of psychiatrists and psychologists as need grew.
In that effort, the insurer was able to grow services by 400%, but it still wasn't enough to meet demand, he said. And the pandemic accelerated the need for mental health services even further, which led the team to realize a new approach may be necessary to address access.
"We knew as an enterprise that we had to do something major to increase our access," Henry said. "And that's when we began a process of looking through all of these different companies that aggregate networks of providers."
Following a two-year search, the Highmark team identified Spring as the right partner after finding the quality results impressive. And once the digital integration was worked out, the program officially launched in January 2024, with about 51,000 people enrolling in the platform on its first year.
Adam Chekroud, Ph.D., president and co-founder of Spring Health, said the mental well-being offering is an example of an insurer truly leaning in on mental health, as many patients may struggle with accessing in-network providers or in finding a provider that takes insurance at all.
He said that the average wait for a behavioral health appointment is three to four weeks nationwide, and getting patients into appointments much faster helps circumvent stigmas and other barriers that may prevent people from seeking help.
"Highmark is leaning in, where a lot of other payers are leaning out," Chekroud said.
One of the standout statistics from the study is that, of the 51,000 individuals who enrolled in the program in 2024, 78.5% were connecting with behavioral health services for the first time.
Henry said that it's highly likely that these individuals had tried to reach out or seek mental healthcare before, but were unable to find a provider or were unable to afford the services.
"That data point was astonishing to me, and it makes me incredibly happy, because it shows to me, that we have lowered the friction beneath the point at which many people had tried previously and given up previously in finding mental health supports," Henry said.
As the partners look ahead to the future of the program, both Henry and Chekroud said that artificial intelligence will be a key tool to continue building out the personalization of the platform.
Chekroud said that it will also provide a valuable assist in between visits. For example, AI can generate a summary of the visit that offers key lessons that the patient can refer back to between sessions with their therapist.
It could also identify when a patient hasn't been working on goals or key activities, and offer nudges to engage, he said.
"The example that I often give is, if you wanted to get jacked, you wouldn't just go to the gym once every two weeks," Chekroud said. "It requires a lot more than just that. And I think that AI's ability is to fill in the gaps between those sessions to make it easier for you to overall hit your goals."