Brightside Health to expand telemental health access with Medicaid & Medicare partnerships

With the addition of these partnerships, the company’s services will be available to over 100 million covered lives

San Francisco, CA – Oct. 5, 2023 – Underscoring its commitment to serve vulnerable populations, Brightside Health will begin offering high-quality mental health care to Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries. The telehealth company–which delivers life-saving mental health care to individuals with mild-to-severe clinical depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders–today announced new and expanded partnerships with Centene; Optum (to serve UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members); Lucet (to serve Florida Blue members); Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas; and others. With these additions, Brightside Health will be able to provide in-network mental health services to 50 million more people, bringing its total covered lives to well over 100 million. 

This expansion is significant as few telemental health providers accept Medicare and even fewer accept Medicaid, leading to major access and quality issues in mental health services for these populations. And it’s not for a lack of need: Medicaid is the single largest payer for mental health services in the U.S., and one in four Medicare beneficiaries are living with mental illness but only 40-50% receive treatment. 

“The ongoing mental health crisis places an increasing and disproportionate burden on Medicaid and Medicare recipients, making it extremely hard for participants in these programs to access timely and effective mental health care,” said Brad Kittredge, co-founder and CEO of Brightside Health. “With this expansion, we’re addressing a major gap in our healthcare system and ensuring that millions of Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries will be able to receive the timely and high-quality mental health care they need.” 

Brightside Health’s full suite of services–personalized psychiatry, clinically proven therapy, and Crisis Care (our program for those with elevated suicide risk)–will be available under these partnerships. When paired with the company’s current commercial payer partnerships, Brightside Health will be able to provide covered care to more than one in three people in the U.S. In the coming months, the company will add even more covered lives through additional Medicaid and Medicare partnerships and by offering services to traditional Medicare Part B beneficiaries. 

Brightside Health has conducted extensive research demonstrating the benefits of telehealth for both Medicaid and Medicare populations. A study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry demonstrates the effectiveness of telemental health for individuals with reported incomes under $30k/year. A separate study, also published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, found older adults see similar improvement in depression symptom severity after using a telehealth platform as younger adults, suggesting that age is not a barrier to telepsychiatric care benefits.

For more information on Brightside Health, visit www.brightside.com or on-site at HLTH at Booth 4031 from October 8-11. For questions and complete details on all partnerships, please contact [email protected].

About Brightside Health

Brightside Health delivers life-saving mental health care to people with mild to severe clinical depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders, including those with elevated suicide risk. Powered by proprietary AI, purpose-built technology, and a world-class clinician network, Brightside Health combines precision psychiatry and leading-edge therapeutic techniques to improve patient outcomes across the entire clinical spectrum, affordably and at scale. Brightside Health can be paid for with insurance in all 50 states and D.C., with appointments available in 48 hours or less. Learn more at www.brightside.com.