In recent years, employers have seen substance use disorder (SUD) claims increase. New York-based Spring Health is looking to address this issue by partnering with Eleanor Health.
Spring launched its SUD program in 2021 and continued to expand its offerings, partly through partnerships with other SUD providers. The partnership with Eleanor is Spring’s latest effort to offer its patients specialized SUD care.
The provider even more recently inked a deal with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Highmark Health, an insurance provider operating in Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The partnership will provide Highmark members access to Spring’s in-person and virtual therapy, medication management and 24/7 crisis support, along with other offerings. Highmark members’ access to behavioral health facilities will increase by 40% through this partnership.
The partnership with Eleanor is Spring’s latest effort to offer its patients specialized SUD care. Eleanor Health offers evidence-based outpatient addiction treatment services and mental health care delivered in either in-person, virtual or hybrid settings.
“[Eleanor] fits a niche in an outpatient setting where people have a lot of needs,” Mill Brown, chief medical officer at Spring Health, told Behavioral Health Business. “They often try to engage people who have pretty significant substance use disorders who are bouncing around the medical system in the current health plan and not really getting the full spectrum care that they need.”
For both companies, expanding SUD treatment offerings is more crucial than ever. Overdose deaths in America reached an all-time high in 2021, with over 98,000 deaths.
“Both Spring and Eleanor feel the urgency to serve our communities by increasing access to evidence-based care that can begin to turn the tide on these devastating statistics,” Nzinga Harrison, Eleanor Health co-founder and CMO, told BHB.
Spring Health began as a business-to-business behavioral health organization and has over 4,500 clients, including Microsoft, The Hershey Company, JB Hunt, Bumble and Fujifilm. The unicorn company raised $71 million in April, bringing its valuation to $2.5 billion.
Waltham, Massachusett-based Eleanor has also received significant investor attention. It raised $50 million in Series C funding in 2022, bringing its total funding to roughly $82 million.
Spring will continue to identify potential partnerships with providers that specialize in a certain area, like alcohol or drug use, to expand its SUD offerings.
“We’re also looking for things like contingency management, which has had a hard time getting paid for over the years because of a lot of regulation barriers but is one of the most proven ways to help people get better,” Brown said. “We have partners like DynamiCare that help bring that kind of capability. Sometimes [Spring looks for] the capability, sometimes it’s for a specific kind of substance.”
Eleanor is also looking to continue expanding.
“We plan to enter into more partnerships like this one with Spring that will enable us to serve more communities and help people affected by addiction live amazing lives,” Harrison said.
Spring Health patients will be able to access Eleanor Health’s services in the seven states it operates in: Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Washington.
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