Delivering Remote Mental Health Services

Sensible Care is an innovative platform that bridges the gap between the Air Force’s mental health capacity and the unfulfilled needs of Airmen and their families. The Sensible Care platform connects patients with quality care by video while offering valuable back-end billing services and patient intake processing to streamline medical providers’ administrative burdens. All of Sensible Care’s sessions are offered via telemedicine, giving patients much-needed privacy, and giving the Air Force the needed flexibility to expand its mental health provider network beyond the base. Through Sensible Care, patients are not only able to get an appointment with a psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist, or nurse practitioner in just a few days, they are also able to know their actual costs before their sessions begin, thanks to “Copay Clarity” - Sensible Care’s unique technology that analyzes a patient’s insurance policy to immediately verify benefits. With a signed MOU from the Mental Health Flight of the 61st Medical Squadron at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Sensible Care plans to build a back-end platform for military mental health providers that would allow them to easily schedule appointments with non-MHS mental health providers for patients, and share data with external providers. This adaptation would multiply the capacity of MHS providers and save significant time and money in coordinating patient care. According to an August 10, 2020, report by the Inspector General of the Department of Defense, the Military Health System (MHS) is failing the mental health of U.S. service members and their families. That scathing report said that over half of active duty troops and their families who were in need of mental health care didn’t receive it. At the very same time, budget cuts threaten the Military Health System. In an August 25th address to the Air Force Sergeants Association, Gen CQ Brown said that the Air Force is on track to have as many suicides in 2020 as in the record highs of the previous year, citing additional burdens from the COVID-19 pandemic that both add stress to airmen’s daily lives and keep them from getting the help they need. “Collectively we’re struggling with how to deal with this,” he said.  Nearly one in five adults in the US have a mental illness, but stigma and poor access keep people from getting help. To make matters worse, a November 2019 “Current Challenges in Recruiting and Retaining Mental Health Professionals” report to Congress explained that the Department of Defense is unable to recruit and retain enough psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health providers because of a lack of advancement opportunities, lower pay than private sector counterparts, and excessive workload. Additionally, those issues are compounded for deployed, TDY, Reserve, and Guard personnel that are physically distant from AF mental health workers.