Teal and purple ribbon and feather turning into flying birds.

How NeuroFlow and Magellan Health are working together on an initiative to support a health plan for suicide prevention efforts, using technology to proactively identify individuals needing support and getting them access to mental health support.

Last month at the HLTH conference in Boston, I got to meet with Dr. Caroline Carney, CMO of Magellan Health, and Chris Molaro, CEO of NeuroFlow. After so much time without in-person gatherings, it was refreshing to reconnect with members of our GDBHT community. We talked about how NeuroFlow and Magellan Health are working together on an initiative to support a health plan for suicide prevention efforts, using technology to proactively identify individuals needing support and getting them access to mental health support. Read more about their collaboration via the Q&A with Chris and Dr. Carney below.

It was great to connect with both of you at the HLTH conference last month! What caught your attention at the event?

Chris: It had been quite a while since our last in person event, so it was even more exciting to reconnect with partners, customers, and team members. The agenda called for two separate workstreams dedicated to mental and behavioral health which I think is a great indicator of not only the increased focus on the topic but all the exciting work being done to address the challenges of truly integrating behavioral health. 

Dr. Carney: The event really showcased how far we’ve come as a country and as innovators in reducing stigma against those with mental illness and in bringing forward innovative solutions to address the needs of persons with behavioral health needs, physical health support, and integration of these.

There has been a lot written about your two organizations coming together recently, but I’m not as familiar with the suicide prevention work you are doing together, can you share more?

Dr. Carney: Magellan rolled out our new model earlier this year, focusing on transition of care and care management needs. We know in real time when a person has entered a higher level of care because of suicidal ideation or an attempt. Our care managers identify those members and outreach to the member to be enrolled on the NeuroFlow platform. Through the platform we can push out evidence-informed content, send messages, and interact to better meet the member’s needs. The 30-90 days following a suicide attempt is when it is most critical to provide support and keep an individual linked to care. During the early months of the pilot, nearly a dozen individuals were provided resources and offered to connect with a care coordinator. Those are precious lives that could have fallen through the cracks and not gotten the level of direct support provided through this collaboration.

Chris: Put simply, we’re coming together to get the right people to the right level of care at the right time by building the first of its kind operating system centered around behavioral health.  And the engagement has been outstanding, 92% percent of registered users have completed at least one assessment in the last month, but as Dr. Carney mentioned, the real value add here is in the link between the engaging, personalized experience for the end user back to a clinical dashboard that helps to risk stratify individuals and flag those who were marked needing elevated levels of support.

What has some of the response been from end users? 

Chris: Just recently, a member triggered an at-risk alert and a team member responded by emailing her resources and an offer to provide more support. She then emailed NeuroFlow requesting support in connecting with mental health treatment that led to a phone call where we found a psychiatrist who she could see through telehealth who was also in-network for her. We scheduled an appointment for her that was just 8 days away, entered her insurance info on their website and she received a confirmation email right away. To me, that’s a great example of technology and human support coming together to help achieve our mission. That’s one person that may not have received the support they needed.

Dr. Carney:  The care manager feedback has also been very positive. Their role to this process is critical as they serve as a liaison between the member, the provider and the Magellan psychiatric consultant who recommends the best course of action. Here was a review we received from one of the care managers trained on NeuroFlow: 

“I offer [NeuroFlow] to every individual. I love that this is an option and all feedback has been positive. Members love mindfulness and the education available.”

What’s next for this project? 

Chris:  We initially rolled it out to a subset of Magellan’s population, specifically for people that have recently been discharged from an in-patient stay or emergency department visit but the impact and feedback has been so impressive that we’re planning to expand the project. There are also product enhancements we’re considering around the behavioral economics and gamification for the mobile app as well as customized reporting and dashboarding for the care team platform.

Dr. Carney: Our collaboration with NeuroFlow has shown how creative and collaborative organizations can be when focused on the right things. We value this relationship and are excited about new opportunities rolling out in the near future!

It has been wonderful to see these two GDBHT organizations work together towards integrated collaborative care, and we can’t wait to see how they continue to address accessibility to care in the future. Take time to watch the full Magellan Health and NeuroFlow sessions from Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech 2021.