YORK- Concert Health, the leading collaborative care platform, announced a partnership with WellSpan Health, an integrated delivery system serving South Central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland, to expand access to same-day, high-quality behavioral health services alongside primary care.
Collaborative care is an evidence-based approach to identifying and treating patients with behavioral health conditions such as anxiety and depression in primary care settings. Concert Health leverages a collaborative care model and pairs it with their behavioral health care team and technology platform, creating an extra layer of connection between each patient and their primary care team. Through this partnership, Concert Health will connect with referred WellSpan patients within 24-48 hours to monitor symptoms and medication and provide evidence-based counseling interventions. The patient experience will also be embedded within the MyWellSpan patient portal for their ease of use.
“We’re excited to partner with WellSpan and proactively address the behavioral health crisis with our collaborative care model, embedding evidence-based treatment within primary care,” said Spencer Hutchins, co-founder and CEO of Concert Health. “Our patient-centered approach aligns with WellSpan’s goal to ensure their primary care providers can seamlessly and effectively deliver whole person care to their entire panel of patients.”
“We know that providing fast access to behavioral health services is essential to our mission of lifelong wellness and healthy communities,” said Dr. David Vega, senior vice president and chief medical officer, WellSpan Health. “As we reimagine healthcare, we’re focused on making the care we offer easier to use, and a timely referral to be seen within a day or two means a quicker road to treatment and recovery.”
WellSpan’s collaboration with Concert Health will work in tandem with the strong suite of behavioral health services already offered through WellSpan Philhaven. This includes a wide range of treatment and support including inpatient services, intensive outpatient programs, partial hospitalization programs, telemedicine, behavioral health specialists embedded in emergency departments, and residential care. These services get patients care when and where they need it. Recent data released by the healthsystem shows a 50 percent decrease in the number of patients in WellSpan emergency departments seeking behavioral healthcare.
Concert Health’s psychiatric providers will provide WellSpan primary care providers with a holistic view of their patients by reviewing patients’ cases regularly, providing feedback and guidance both to the behavioral health team and making specific treatment recommendations back to the WellSpan primary care provider. Concert Health has treated nearly 100,000 patients within its collaborative care model and driven strong clinical outcomes with half seeing at least a 50 percent decrease in anxiety or depression symptoms (PHQ9 or GAD7) in less than 90 days. Patients also express strong satisfaction with their experience — Concert Health’s care team upholds a 72 net promoter score (72) among patients.
Concert Health’s collaborative care solution underscores the need for proactive and scaled approaches to address the growing mental health crisis. In addition to more than half of behavioral health clinicians saying they don’t have openings to see new patients, they’re also seeing patients with more acute symptoms that need longer treatment times, according to the American Psychological Association.
