Matchmaker fulfills 10,000 behavioral health care requests

By closing the search gap to find providers, Matchmaker™ for Behavioral Health opened the door for thousands of LifeWise members to access care sooner. With 10,000 completed requests, it’s quite a milestone for the homegrown program that launched in 2020.

Why it matters

• About 60% of people who need behavioral health care don’t get it, often due to access barriers.
• Common barriers include:
  • Lack of time or energy to search for providers
  • Provider unavailability
  • Difficulty navigating insurance networks
  • Challenges finding the right clinical, cultural, and interpersonal fit with a provider

“Matchmaker eliminates the searching that a member may have to do on their own,” said Alyson Fenton, operations manager for Matchmaker. “It can sometimes take 20-30 phone calls just to find one provider who’s available. Our program makes access to behavioral health so much easier.”

How it works

• Members submit a request for behavioral health support, and the Matchmaker team does the searching on their behalf across all 50 states. Provider searches can be refined by:
  • Specialty
  • Language
  • Gender
  • Religion
  • Virtual and hybrid options
  • Distance preferences
• Providers are vetted to ensure they are:
  • Accepting new patients
  • In network
  • Available within a reasonable timeframe

The Matchmaker team curates a list of viable providers, eliminating the need for members to do so.

Members most commonly seek care for anxiety, depression, and trauma. Matchmaker can search for:

• Talk therapists
• Medication management providers
• Psychological testing providers

Cost of care relationship

It’s easy to think that healthcare costs go up more when members get behavioral health care, but timely care does the opposite. For example:

• With outpatient care, a member who suffers from panic attacks may learn coping skills for severe anxiety, including recognizing signs of a panic attack before it escalates.
• Without care, that same member could end up in the emergency department, since panic attack symptoms can mimic a heart attack.
• Without a primary care and a behavioral health clinician follow-up after an emergency department discharge, a member could end up in a cycle of behavioral health crises that could be prevented.

“By getting access to outpatient behavioral health, we can minimize other expensive interventions,” Alyson noted.

The personal touch

Matchmaker’s numbers may speak for themselves, but it’s more than finding the right provider referral. Members can and have contacted the Matchmaker team when they’ve needed follow-up help.

“It’s nice for members to know that there’s a person who’s available to respond to their questions. Members continue to reach out to us, and that’s a real testament to the quality of the program and the importance of being available to our members,” Alyson said.