Aetna customers in Massachusetts and Connecticut can now access InStride Health, a specialty pediatric mental health provider, the companies shared with MedCity News exclusively.
Boston-based InStride Health provides virtual specialty outpatient care for pediatric anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Its care is grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy, focusing on exposure therapy, in which patients are gradually exposed to situations they fear. By working with Aetna, more than 90% of commercial lives in Massachusetts and Connecticut now have access to InStride Health’s services.
The company works with patients aged seven to 22 and their families, providing them with a care team consisting of a therapist, exposure coach and psychiatrist. This team develops a personalized care plan that may involve individual therapy, family therapy, exposure coaching, parent/caregiver groups and medication management. Patients can communicate with their care team via text, phone or video.
“The whole idea is to get the kid, teen or younger adult back to doing the things they love,” said John Voith, co-founder and CEO of InStride Health, in an interview. “And so our program starts with more interactions, and the interactions gradually decrease as the patient builds confident skills and new habits to manage their anxiety or OCD. Ultimately, the goal is to provide lasting change in the patient’s life so that they can stop being a patient [and] get back to being a student, or get back to being a friend, or whatever it is that they want to be in their life.”
This announcement comes as about one in five adolescents report symptoms of anxiety or depression. Due to a mental health provider shortage, insurance challenges and waitlists, many are unable to receive care.
Working with Aetna helps address this challenge, according to Voith.
“By opening up and adding a partner like Aetna to the mix, it just enables our mission to provide access to care that we know is really needed,” he said.
InStride also works with several other insurers, including Cigna, UnitedHealthcare and Mass General Brigham Health Plan. In addition to Massachusetts and Connecticut, it operates in Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia. InStride’s mission is to include “all insurance plans,” but the company has started in the commercial sector, Voith said.
As the world faces a child mental health crisis, several other digital mental health companies focused on youth have emerged, including Little Otter, Brightline and Backpack. Companies that initially served adults have also expanded to serving children, including Headspace, Lyra Health and Spring Health.
Photo Credit: Bohdan Skrypnyk, Getty Images
