Behavioral health conditions impact 50 million Americans. Despite the growing need for resources, insufficient access to care remains the greatest barrier to addressing issues including anxiety, depression, grief, and substance use disorder. Prudential Group Insurance (Prudential), a business unit of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), is helping to improve access to care by offering NeuroFlow®, a behavioral health and care management solution and tool, to its disability insurance claimants. Prudential believes this access will help improve disability outcomes for its claimants, including helping them return to work.
NeuroFlow provides access to care coordination services and crisis intervention, as well as self-service tools for psychoeducation, relaxation, coping skills training and more. The platform leverages data analytics and artificial intelligence to inform measurement-based care such as identifying at-risk claimants and to recommend tools and content through the app intended to improve their disability experience and outcomes. Unlike other mental health applications, users will have access to a real-life care coordinator for additional support. As part of its commitment to managing its claims effectively and helping claimants return to work, Prudential’s work with NeuroFlow expands its prominent behavioral health resources, including manager sensitivity training and ongoing industry research to address the three barriers to mental health improvement: awareness, stigma and access to care.
“Prudential has long advocated for addressing the psychological impact that accompanies injuries or illnesses that put someone out of work. That need has become much more urgent with the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Dr. Kristin Tugman, vice president of Health and Productivity Analytics and Consulting Practice for Prudential Group Insurance. “The drastic changes to how we live and work have only made our mental health crisis worse and more complex. Improving access to behavioral health resources was a natural next step in supporting our claimants and helping them return to work.”
America’s mental health crisis is also impacting the workplace, resulting in 1.6 billion workdays lost per year. According to Tugman, employers may feel they have a business imperative to add mental health resources to their suite of workplace benefits. “We believe it prioritizes the wellbeing of employees, but also helps improve productivity, faster return to work and reduces absence costs.”
Prudential chose to work with NeuroFlow in part for its record of performance and proven outcomes. The platform’s engagement rates historically outperform industry benchmarks. NeuroFlow’s sustained user engagement, combined with improved access to care, has resulted in impacts in non-disability related areas, including reducing emergency department utilization. Based on NeuroFlow’s impact in these other areas, Prudential believes NeuroFlow’s work will also result in improved disability outcomes for Prudential’s claimants.
Prudential plans to have NeuroFlow available to most disability claimants in 2Q 2021.
