Jump to section
Of Moda Health members who engaged in care with Spring Health:
- 77% improved depression symptoms
- 74% improved anxiety symptoms
Members receive fast access to care, with an average wait time of just 1.3 days for the next available:
- Therapy or coaching appointment
- Medication management appointment
- Pediatric therapy appointment
For far too long, behavioral health has been dismissed as a mere “cost center” by many health plans. But Moda Health, an innovative insurer, is flipping this outdated narrative on its head, and the results are nothing short of transformative.
This is the story of how a close partnership with Spring Health brought Moda Health’s vision for fast-access and high-quality behavioral healthcare to life, delivering better outcomes for the health plan, their clients, and their members.
Just five years ago, behavioral health treatment was rarely a priority for health plan purchasers. However, in recent years, Moda Health has experienced a dramatic surge in demand for quality mental health and substance use services, including virtual therapy—serving members across both urban and rural areas.
Dan Thoma, Moda's director of behavioral health, has noticed a significant shift in his conversations with employer clients. Now, instead of asking, 'How are you containing costs?' employers are more often asking, 'How are you providing access and helping our employees get better?'”
But while health plan members are seeking mental health support at unprecedented levels, systemic challenges in behavioral healthcare continue to create barriers to both access and quality care.
Access is still a major barrier
Nationally, the average wait time for in-person behavioral healthcare is 67 days—and 43 days for a virtual appointment. Ghost networks add to this challenge. For those struggling with mental health or substance use challenges, navigating these barriers to access can feel overwhelming.
Like many health plans nationwide, Moda Health faced these access barriers, but their specific member demographics presented additional complexities.
Moda Health partners with a wide variety of employers. This means they cover a range of industries and geographies – key to their membership needs was a care solution that met the needs of all professions and satisfied both urban and rural needs.
Many members have also expressed a need for LGBTQ+ providers and a network that reflects greater racial and ethnic diversity.
Searching for the right fit
With these challenges in mind, in 2021, Moda designed its innovative Behavioral Health 360 program and spent a significant amount of time seeking out the right partner—one who could:
- Improve member access to outpatient care
- Build a more diverse provider network
- Integrate culturally responsive care
- Implement measurement-based care
- Strengthen care quality and therapeutic alliance
During the RFP process, the Moda team was consistently drawn to Spring Health’s strengths—the focus on measurement-based care and clinical quality, the diverse provider network, and the technology-enabled infrastructure that ensures fast access to care.
Reflecting on the decision to partner with Spring Health, Dan says, “There’s been absolutely no looking back on our choice of Spring Health.”
Building a new model of care
Moda Health's partnership with Spring Health in 2022 marked a pivotal moment in their mission to expand access and innovation in behavioral healthcare for their members.
According to Stacy Carmichael, Moda Health’s VP of sales and account services, the impact was immediate. Members began scheduling appointments swiftly, receiving personalized guidance from Care Navigators, and finding the right providers for their unique situations.
Stacy points to the partnership as a breakthrough, explaining, "We've cracked the code on access." Moda members can now see a Spring Health provider within 3-5 days, a vast improvement from the national average of 43 days.
Spring Health's commitment to meeting member needs was evident early in the partnership. Dan recalls Spring Health conducting a nationwide search for a mental health provider who spoke Pohnpeian—a language indigenous to the Caroline Islands of Micronesia—to serve employees of an Oregon-based company.
Upon locating a qualified provider in Alaska, Spring Health even facilitated their Oregon licensure to serve employees in need of behavioral healthcare. 'I've never found anybody willing to do anything like that,' Dan reflects.
Sarah March, one of Moda's behavioral health champions, attributes this to the diversity and flexibility of Spring Health's provider network, which has enabled Moda members to get connected with the right care when they need it most.
"This is especially important for members with conditions like depression, anxiety, or substance use disorder, who need to get connected with treatment as soon as possible," she explains.
Now, when members in distress contact Moda Health looking for care, they can log into the app, fill out the assessments, and usually get an appointment within a couple of days. For many people, this rapid access has been life-changing.
Meeting members’ needs including members who historically did not get access to high quality mental health care
The impact has been especially pronounced for historically underserved people in rural areas. As director of government programs, Erica Hedberg explains, "When we meet with school employees across Oregon, they consistently express how excited they are to have access to Spring Health."
Erica notes the demands of teaching leave little flexibility for traditional in-person therapy appointments, which require time away from the classroom and often come with lengthy waitlists.
Teachers are busy—they can’t step out in the middle of the day or wait weeks to see a provider. With Spring Health, however, Oregon's educator members can seamlessly access care on their own schedule. Real-time provider availability and the ability to book appointments at convenient times, including coveted night and weekend appointments, have been game changers.
What seamless care looks like
Moda members can set up an account, book an in-network appointment with just a few clicks, and receive the care they need—often as soon as the following day.
Once a member is in the Spring Health ecosystem, it's intuitive to use. Members also have access to Care Navigators, who ensure members are getting their needs met, especially those new to therapy and unsure where to begin.
Sarah notes, "The people who I think really need and utilize the services we provide are the folks who have no idea where to begin. Maybe they're so overwhelmed with what they have going on—whether it's depression or grief or anxiety—they don't have the emotional capacity to call 20 different providers and navigate how complicated it can be to find someone who's in-network."
A quantitative difference in wellbeing
The results of Moda Health's partnership with Spring Health speak for themselves. Members begin their mental health journey with a clinically-validated assessment that screens for over 12 mental health and substance use conditions.
Based on their results, each member receives a personalized care plan and access to a licensed, master’s level clinician to help them navigate through their care journey.
To ensure optimal outcomes, members complete regular assessments throughout their treatment, allowing for continuous monitoring and adjustment of their care.
Here's what Moda Health members are experiencing with Spring Health:
Better access
Members receive fast access to care, with an average wait time of just 1.3 days for the next available:
- Therapy or coaching appointment
- Medication management appointment
- Pediatric therapy appointment
Better outcomes:
- 77% of members show reliable improvement in depression symptoms
- 74% improvement among members with anxiety symptoms
- 9.3/10: members rating of provider satisfaction
Spring Health’s ability to measure treatment progress and outcomes is based on its technology infrastructure, which includes a proprietary electronic health records platform, Compass, and a provider pay-for-performance platform, Candela.
Every provider in the Spring Health network uses measurement-based care, and continuously tracks patient treatment progress and outcomes within Compass.
Dan highlights Spring Health's commitment to measurement-based care was critical to Moda’s vision. "We need a way of knowing if this treatment is working. So you can tell quickly—it looks like this isn't working well. We need to change course a bit."
A health plan leads the way
Erica summarizes the impact of this partnership, saying, "Spring Health was a game changer. When we added Spring Health, we added additional access… but it's also bringing in a more diverse panel of providers for our members."
Moda Health's bold vision for better access to quality behavioral healthcare has become a reality, changing lives in the process. By challenging industry norms and embracing innovation in partnership with Spring Health, Moda isn’t just meeting their members' unique needs—they’re leading the way as an example of how health plans approach behavioral healthcare.
About Moda Health
Founded in Portland in 1955, Moda is a health company committed to helping communities “experience better.” Moda has more than 400,000 members in its medical plans and nearly 1 million members in its stand-alone pharmacy segment. The Moda family of enterprises includes Moda Health, Ardon Health, Arrow Dental, Astra Practice Partners, BenefitHelp Solutions, Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Organization, Emerging Health, ODS Community Dental and OHSU Health IDS. Affiliated companies include Delta Dental of Oregon and Delta Dental of Alaska with more than 1 million dental members. For more information visit www.modahealth.com.
About the Author
