DURHAM, N.C. – Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) has announced a new collaboration with Mindoula to help address the complex health needs of members with serious mental illness and/or substance use disorder. The program leverages expertise from the tech-enabled behavioral health management company to expand access to behavioral health services and will launch on January 1, 2023.
In North Carolina, serious mental illness—a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder resulting in serious functional impairment—affects more than 350,000 adults.1 These individuals have a 10- to 20-year reduction in life expectancy, and often receive poorly coordinated, inconsistent care.2 With a goal to integrate behavioral care into primary care, Mindoula is a market leader in reducing hospital readmissions and avoidable emergency department visits.
Blue Cross NC will work with Mindoula to directly address the mental health crisis and health care shortage in North Carolina by providing tech-enabled support that expands outpatient behavioral health care to members in the greater Triangle area, as well as eligible members outside of North Carolina. As a value-based care program, Mindoula aims to reduce hospital admissions for members with serious mental illness and/or substance use disorder, and to improve these members’ health and overall quality of life. Value-based care rewards quality, with hospital and provider payments issued based on successful treatments, rather than only taking into account the number of procedures or tests performed. Mindoula will provide clinical services, crisis support and assistance with coordinated care for those in the value-based program.
“Individuals with complex behavioral health conditions need specialized care, including support that’s available around-the-clock,” said Dr. Nora Dennis, lead medical director at Blue Cross NC. “Our collaboration with Mindoula will give more of our members living with mental health disorders the opportunity to be healthy.” The partnership with Mindoula complements Blue Cross NC’s recent collaboration with Headway to better address members’ behavioral health needs, and to make health care more affordable and easier to access.
“Mindoula has demonstrated expertise in delivering measurement-based behavioral health care in diverse clinical populations, 24/7 support, and care coordination,” said Steve Sidel, Founder and CEO of Mindoula. “We are thrilled to be working with Blue Cross NC to extend their behavioral health network and capabilities.”
Blue Cross NC will identify members who are eligible for Mindoula’s services. Members can also be referred to Mindoula for direct care by hospital psychiatry and medical units, hospital emergency departments, community agencies, crisis support providers, primary care practices, and other in-network providers.
Beginning in 2023, Mindoula will serve our members in the following North Carolina counties: Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Johnston, Nash, Orange, Person, Vance, Wake, Warren and Wilson. Mindoula may expand its services to other areas of the state in the future. Members with a commercial group or individual health plan, Medicare Advantage plan or Federal Employee Program (FEP) plan in these areas will be eligible.
About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina:
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) is committed to making health care better, simpler and more affordable. We have been driving better health in North Carolina since 1933, working to tackle our communities’ greatest health challenges. Blue Cross NC serves its customers and communities of more than 4.2 million members, including approximately 1.1 million on behalf of other Blue Plans. Blue Cross NC is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Visit Blue Cross NC online at www.bluecrossnc.com. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
About Mindoula:
Mindoula is a next generation population health management company that scales the human connection through technology in addressing mind, body, and life challenges. It identifies, engages, and serves populations who might otherwise be left behind, and delivers techenabled, team-based, 24/7 support and care across the continuum of care. Mindoula’s adaptive data science approach, multi-platform technology stack, and virtual + in-person care extension teams enable its enterprise partners to achieve improved outcomes and significantly reduced costs by integrating behavioral, medical, and social determinants of health. Headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, Mindoula is currently operating in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Nevada, Louisiana, West Virginia, California, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Washington, Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Minnesota, and Florida, with continued national expansion plans to meet the growing need for integrated whole person care.
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1 https://www.nami.org/NAMI/media/NAMI-Media/StateFactSheets/NorthCarolinaStateFactSheet.pdf. Accessed August 2022.
2 Chesney E, Goodwin GM, Fazel S. Risks of all‐cause and suicide mortality in mental disorders: a meta‐review. World psychiatry. 2014 Jun;13(2):153-60
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