Brightside Health CEO aims to expand access to mental health

Many are struggling to find mental health services, and finding a clinician is only half the challenge.

Brad Kittredge, co-founder and CEO of Brightside Health, says it’s often difficult to find a clinician who can see patients quickly.

“If you've ever tried to get an appointment and use your insurance for mental health, you're generally going to be looking at your payer directory and finding a bunch of names and phone numbers to call, many of whom you won't be able to get through to. And generally, if you do, people are going to tell you that it's about a 12-week wait until the next appointment,” Kittredge says.

Brightside Health, a telehealth company offering mental health services, offers appointments in as little as 48 hours.

“We strive to make sure there's at least one appointment option in 48 hours and often as little as 24, and ensure that those appointments are during work, hours, after hours, weekends, evenings, etc., so that everybody can find appointments, get in quickly and then have a really phenomenal care experience,” Kittredge says.

Kittredge spoke with Chief Healthcare Executive® at the HLTH conference last week. In our interview, he talked about the desire to expand more care options to underserved communities. He also discussed the company’s work with patients who are considering suicide, and why his firm is embracing patients who rely on Medicaid.

(See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)

‘There’s a lot of value’

While telehealth usage has dipped from the peak of the pandemic, many patients are seeking behavioral health services via virtual care. Nearly two-thirds (62.8%) of telehealth visits in the fourth quarter of 2022 were for behavioral health appointments, according to data from Trilliant Health.

Kittredge says behavioral care has been “the place where remote care has been most durable post-pandemic.”

“It does show, in many ways, this stickiness, that once people have experienced remote care for behavioral health that they really like it, there's a lot of value to it,” Kittredge says.

• Read more: Telehealth leaders say virtual care must evolve, but it’s not going away

Some patients are choosing telehealth for convenience, either to avoid a trip to and back from a clinic and to avoid hassles such as finding childcare. But Kittredge says some are comfortable talking about private matters in their home environment, and some are seeing value in telehealth.

“Most mental health conditions are really chronic conditions that you need to manage over time,” Kittredge says. “But I also think that our virtual delivery model allows for a number of tools and experiences as part of that care continuum that are different from in-person care and that add value in the way that people experience that care.”

Many patients who are having trouble finding providers are most stymied by finding a caregiver who accepts their insurance, Kittredge says.

It’s especially hard for those patients who are experiencing more severe mental health issues, he says. Brightside is aiming to reach more of those underserved patients with pressing needs. Many of Brightside’s patients are wrestling with suicidal ideation, and in some cases, are at higher risk of suicide, Kittredge says.

“In digging in to really understand that population, and working with some other stakeholders in industry, we found that those individuals with elevated suicide risk are a bit of a hot potato, where so few providers are specifically trained in the subspecialty of being able to manage suicide risk,” Kittredge says. “And it's an inherently challenging and uncomfortable place, and so a lot of providers would decline to take those patients.”

“It's hard enough to get a routine appointment, let alone a really urgent and time-sensitive and severe appointment, and so those people would end up going to the emergency room,” he adds.

Teens and Medicaid patients

Brightside is also aiming to reach more teens with mental health needs. Many kids are struggling with feelings of hopelessness, clinicians say. Leaders of children’s hospitals say they are seeing more kids and teens showing up in their emergency department for mental health issues.

“We can also see alarming trends in teen mental health starting way before the pandemic,” Kittredge says, adding that some families have had problems finding clinicians.

Brightside is aiming to serve patients in Medicaid programs. Kittredge says some providers have been leery of participating in Medicaid rates, due to low reimbursement rates. But he also notes that Medicaid is the biggest payer for mental health services in the U.S.

“We've got a lot of demand for mental health services and very limited supply in those Medicaid networks,” Kittredge says.

Plus, working with Medicaid programs is also a way to offer services to more young patients who need assistance.

Kittredge says working with Medicaid patients is “emblematic of the way we think about where we want to go and focus our efforts and resources to solve some of those intractable, really important problems in the broader mental health landscape.”

After conducting some market research among Medicaid beneficiaries, Kittredge says he observed gut-wrenching findings. Some Medicaid patients said they didn’t expect quality mental health care, and that even if they could get an appointment, it wasn’t going to be very good. Kittredge says that’s not acceptable.

“That population is one that we can't ignore and that we've got to figure out how to serve it,” Kittredge says.

Reaching rural areas

Rural healthcare is another area of focus for Brightside, since some residents in rural communities don’t have easy access to clinics offering mental health services.

“In rural environments where people have access to fewer and fewer healthcare resources, virtual mental health care is just a lifesaver, and so we continue to focus on those populations, collaborate with rural hospitals, collaborate with our payer partners to make sure that we're identifying and engaging with the right patients who really need our care,” Kittredge says. “And we will continue to invest in those rural populations.”

Kittredge is familiar with the pain of mental health struggles. He has a close relative who had depression. So he’s enthusiastic about the prospects of offering more services to those in need, and working with health systems and payers to help patients avoid hospitalization or readmissions.

Earlier this year, Brightside completed its first acquisition with the purchase of Lionrock Recovery. With the move, Brightside is now offering virtual intensive outpatient programs for substance use disorder.

“Those are ongoing and long-term investments, major build outs and expansions of our care offering,” Kittredge says.