A study from Mental Health America reported that in New York more than 58 percent of adults with a mental illness did not receive treatment, ranking New York 42nd out of 50 states for this measure.
To respond to the growing needs for behavioral healthcare services in New York, Empire BlueCross BlueShield has added four virtual health companies to its provider network: Alma, Headway, NOCD, and Ophelia.
Empire is the largest health insurer in New York supporting more than four million members and more than 38,000 business, union and small employers in New York. “Behavioral health has an impact on nearly every aspect of our day-to-day lives, and as we work to support the whole health of our members, it’s important that we’re offering options to support these needs as well,” said Jordan Vidor, Empire’s regional vice president, provider solutions, in a statement. “The pandemic put pressure on the system, and it became very clear that we needed to identify creative solutions to meet the demand – that’s where our work with Alma, Headway, NOCD, and Ophelia comes into play, and we’re thrilled to make these options more accessible for more New Yorkers.”
Here are descriptions of the four virtual behavioral health providers:
• Alma makes it easy for people to find mental healthcare by helping providers accept insurance and build thriving private practices. Empire’s commercial members can now access Alma’s providers at in-network rates. Members interested in behavioral health services can now search Alma’s free directory to find an in-network provider who fits their schedule and meets their needs. They can search New York therapists across diverse backgrounds, and filter by age, gender, specialty, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, therapeutic style, and specific concerns to ensure they find the perfect fit. Members can also work with Alma’s Client Matching team for a more personalized experience at no extra cost.
• Headway says it is building a new mental healthcare system everyone can access by removing the barriers faced by providers, health plans, and the patients they serve. The company’s proprietary tech infrastructure supports mental health providers with administrative functions such as credentialing, scheduling, billing, and revenue cycle management, enabling them to focus their time on care delivery. Headway offers Empire’s commercial members the ability to immediately schedule an appointment in as soon as 48 hours, have price transparency upfront, and search for and select a provider that meets their clinical needs and preferences, such as race and ethnicity, language, LGBTQIA+, geography, in-person vs. virtual, and more. Since launching the Empire partnership in June 2022, Headway has already supported more than 4,000 behavioral health providers to actively practice in-network, with this number growing every week.
• NOCD says it is the No. 1 provider for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). NOCD helps adults, adolescents, and children (down to age five) reclaim their lives with clinically proven OCD treatment. Inside the NOCD platform, members can quickly access virtual, face-to-face therapy from a national network of licensed therapists who specialize in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy, the “gold standard” for OCD treatment, as well as get support between sessions from peer communities and self-help tools. NOCD is now in-network for Empire members across all lines of business including commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid.
• Ophelia says it is on a mission to make evidence-based treatment universally accessible — with a focus on the 80 percent of Americans with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) who are unable to access care. Led by the leading experts in addiction medicine and psychiatry, they pair telemedicine with medication-assisted treatment (MAT), the most effective treatment for OUD. Ophelia is now in-network for Empire members across all lines of business including commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid.
