Evernorth Health Services plans to triple its provider headcount in 2026 from its current workforce of 5,000 providers to around 15,000 across all 50 states.
Cigna (NYSE: CI) subsidiary Evernorth hit its 5,000 provider milestone in November – about a year and a half after it formed the Evernorth Behavioral Care Group in early 2024 with just 1,000 providers at the time. The initiative’s launch also aimed to connect patients to care more quickly – within 72 hours – rather than the industry average of 48 days.
Since then, through its partnership with virtual care provider Octave, Evernorth has designed a scalable practice infrastructure and recruited clinicians to strengthen its hybrid in-person and telehealth care model. The results have yielded an 84% reduction in depression or anxiety symptoms on average across its patient population.
“As we expand our provider network, we maintain a high bar for clinical excellence,” Arianna Arneson, clinical director of Evernorth Behavioral Care Group, told Behavioral Health Business. “Not every independently licensed clinician automatically is a fit for Evernorth Behavioral Care Group; we intentionally recruit providers who are committed to evidence‑based care and continuous improvement.”
Scaling from 1,000 providers to 5,000 under its behavioral care group since the 2024 launch has required Evernorth to adjust its recruitment and retention strategies. This has primarily centered on investments in provider experience and flexible technology, as well as referrals, Arneson explained.
“Quality remains central as we scale,” Arneson said. “We measure outcomes at both the clinician and group level and share those insights transparently with providers. This helps us uphold high standards of care, deliver individualized support, and ensure that customers have access to clinicians who consistently drive strong therapeutic outcomes.”
Cigna initially focused its efforts on growing behavioral health care across Evernorth’s capabilities in 2022, following a trend at the time of payers expanding their reach into the behavioral health sector via their respective health service divisions.
Then, a 2023 rollout of its behavioral health measurement-based care program propelled Evernorth’s growth in value-based care for mental health patients, which remains a growth goal as the company heads into 2026 with its eye toward even greater scale.
As it continues to scale and triple the number of behavioral health providers in 2026, payer relationships have been uniquely imperative to its growth strategy. Its payer partnerships also help Evernorth better identify patients who may be experiencing mental health issues and connect them quickly to care.
“To make care financially accessible, we continue to grow our payer footprint and work with health plans in ways that go beyond traditional network participation,” Arneson said. “Our partners leverage our direct scheduling capabilities and reporting tools to help members quickly connect to high‑quality care, and our clinical outcomes demonstrate meaningful results.”
The company has also leveraged its technology capabilities and value-based model to continuously refine its patient-to-provider matching, which pairs individuals with providers who specialize in the type of care they need.
“When it comes to data integration, interoperability, and coordination of care, we meet partners where they are with a range of flexible solutions,” Arneson said. “Across all models, our focus is to support tech-enabled, bi‑directional information sharing so that providers across the continuum of care have access to timely insights to better support their patients.”
Evernorth has also built strong partnerships with physician and specialty provider practices, which enable faster patient referrals and data exchange to bolster its measurement-based care approach.
Heading into a year of lofty growth goals, Evernorth will simultaneously focus on deepening partnerships with these practices and payers alike, Arneson said.
