Cigna members can now tap into mental health services via Ginger app

On-desire behavioral wellbeing platform Ginger is now accessible as a wellbeing profit for Cigna’s fourteen million users, the businesses declared nowadays.

Users with Cigna’s employer-sponsored or person and spouse and children insurance policies options can now entry Ginger’s behavioral wellbeing coaching, therapy and psychiatry expert services as an in-network profit.

“Cigna’s mission is to boost the wellbeing, very well-getting and peace of thoughts of these we serve by generating health care simple, reasonably priced and predictable,” Dr. Doug Nemecek, the chief health-related officer for behavioral wellbeing at Cigna, stated in a statement.

“Right now, extra than ever, individuals are seeking out psychological wellbeing aid, and our romance with Ginger creates extra entry to that treatment, when and where prospects need it.”

Interested users can download the Ginger app and offer their insurance policies facts to acquire entry to the total suite of expert services.

WHY THIS Matters

Demand from customers for behavioral health care has been on the increase during the pandemic. In point, extra than forty% of U.S. older people documented signs and symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, as opposed to just 11% in the months prior to the outbreak, according to a Kaiser Spouse and children Basis survey.

“We’re struggling with a nationwide provide-desire disaster in psychological health care, with desire achieving unprecedented levels, and less providers getting into the marketplace than ever in advance of,” Russell Glass, CEO of Ginger, stated in a statement.

“We’re very pleased to spouse with major corporations like Cigna that understand not only the scope of the nation’s psychological wellbeing disaster, but the importance of using a preventative approach to this obstacle. Together, we are opening up entry to unbelievable psychological health care for millions at a fraction of the cost of standard treatment.”

The Ginger platform provides around-the-clock textual content-centered behavioral wellbeing coaching with a trained behavioral wellbeing specialist. If necessary, users can escalate their treatment to contain digital therapy or psychiatry, with at-household prescription shipping accessible as a result of Capsule.

It also incorporates an on the net library of skill-making resources on topics these kinds of as mindfulness, relationships and current gatherings.

THE Bigger Trend

The two businesses have been doing the job alongside one another for some time now, with Cigna Ventures investing in Ginger’s $50 million raise final calendar year.

Far more recently, Ginger scored $a hundred million in a Series E funding round with options to establish partnerships in the insurance policies space.

This is also not Cigna’s first foray into electronic wellbeing. Before this calendar year, its wellbeing expert services subsidiary Evernorth acquired the telehealth supplier MDLive.

Well being plans’ desire in electronic behavioral wellbeing is escalating and final calendar year UnitedHealth Group’s Optum bought AbleTo for about $470 million.