This was a key theme during an executive roundtable sponsored by Ontrak Health at Becker’s Fall Payer Issues Roundtable. Leaders from Ontrak — including Brianna Brennan, chief innovation officer; Judy Feld, MD, chief medical officer; and Mary Louise Osborne, president and chief commercial officer — led the discussion with payer executives, covering key challenges and opportunities in technology-driven interventions.
Three takeaways were:
- Ontrak helps payers identify high-risk members. In analyzing data from multiple sources, including eligibility claims, pharmacy and demographics, Ontrak’s AI-driven technology identifies and engages hard-to-reach member populations with unaddressed behavioral health issues and chronic diseases. This process enables payers to better understand which members would benefit the most from enhanced engagement in their care.
“We identify members who need behavioral health and are not in treatment,” Ms. Osborne said, noting the platform’s use of augmented intelligence, predictive analytics and human interactions. “Our average member has four to six chronic comorbidities that are driving up costs.”
These comorbidities include depression, anxiety and substance use disorder.
- Ontrak fosters proactive member engagement. Leaders from Ontrak explained how, as part of the company’s advanced engagement system, the Ontrak team proactively reaches out to health plan members.
“We know about a former diagnosis and about their background, so we can start forming a relationship,” Ms. Osborne said. About 50% of members engage on the first call, and members typically stay in the program for eight to nine months.
As part of member engagement, Ontrak provides personalized care coaching and timely behavioral health visits, and works to integrate care. Further, their team supports coaches with a mental health digital twin.
“The digital twin represents the member,” Dr. Feld explained. “We not only have dynamic inputs like barriers, claims and clinical history from the member, but also data from other individuals with similar profiles.” Ontrak keeps coaches apprised of potential care signals that may indicate a concern requiring immediate attention.
- Ontrak’s approach delivers significant benefits. By identifying and engaging members with behavioral health issues, Ontrak improves clinical outcomes and reduces the cost of care for payers.
Specific results include reducing avoidable costs by 43%, reducing ER costs by 32% and decreasing the cost of inpatient care by 62%. Payers partner with Ontrak because the company delivers an ROI of more than two times, and Ontrak puts 100% of its fees at risk.
