In a promising move to improve mental health care delivery in primary care settings, Concert Health, a leading virtual telepsychiatry provider, has announced a new three-year partnership with the University of Washington’s Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions (AIMS) CenterIn a promising move to improve mental health care delivery in primary care settings, Concert Health, a leading virtual telepsychiatry provider, has announced a new three-year partnership with the University of Washington’s Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions (AIMS) Center. The collaboration focuses on expanding access to high-quality, evidence-based mental. This collaboration, health care through the Collaborative Care for Mental Health model—especially focused on Collaborative Care for Mental Health, aims to scale access for patients struggling with to high-quality, complex psychiatric conditions such as bipolar evidence-based disorder and care—especially for patients struggling with complex psychiatric conditions such as bipolar disorder post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
This initiative is grounded in the Collaborative Care for Mental Health model, a framework developed by the AIMS Center in the early 2000s. Collaborative Care for Mental Health integrates behavioral health services into primary care settings, allowing for the management of mental health concerns within the familiar environment of a patient’s medical home. In this model, a patient’s care is led by their primary care provider (PCP), who is supported by a team that may include care managers, consulting psychiatrists, and licensed behavioral health clinicians. This team-based approach is designed to ensure comprehensive, coordinated, and timely mental health care—something that is sorely lacking in many underserved areas across the United States.
Addressing Gaps in Mental Health Access
The new partnership specifically targets individuals with bipolar disorder and PTSD—two conditions that are often misdiagnosed or under-treated in primary care. These populations face significant barriers to accessing psychiatric evaluation and treatment. For example, patients in rural or underserved communities may go years without seeing a psychiatrist, even as they cycle through various medications or remain undiagnosed.
“When you think about the number of individuals that are impacted by trauma, or prior traumatic experiences, a significant number of individuals that are seen in primary care practices—particularly in the underserved communities where this project focuses—it becomes clear that we need more comprehensive behavioral health support,” said Virna Little, cofounder and special advisor of advocacy and research at Concert Health. “Then [for patients with] bipolar… there are no psychiatric providers or resources. The ability for individuals to get a comprehensive psychiatric diagnostic evaluation and then Collaborative Care for Mental Health is going to be a game changer for them personally and also for the communities that are served.”
A Scalable, Centralized Model of Care
Historically, scaling the Collaborative Care for Mental Health model has proven challenging. Most primary care clinics don’t have the bandwidth or financial resources to hire and train full-time behavioral health care managers. Even when care managers are on staff, their patient load is typically limited, making broad access difficult to achieve. As Dr. John Fortney, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Division of Population Health at the University of Washington, explained, “The AIMS Center in the past has worked almost exclusively with primary care clinics to hire and train care managers. It’s working with one clinic at a time or maybe 10 clinics at a time, but it’s slow going.”
Concert Health’s virtual infrastructure solves this bottleneck by offering a centralized, scalable care model. Through this system, primary care providers can easily refer patients with behavioral health concerns to Concert Health, whose clinicians—psychiatrists, licensed therapists, and care managers—can contact the patient within 24 hours to conduct a psychiatric evaluation and begin the process of care coordination. This not only accelerates access to services but also allows for seamless communication between the primary care provider and the behavioral health team. Providers can review notes, track patient progress, and, when appropriate, take over prescribing to consolidate care back into the primary care practice.
“This allows the primary care provider to be really confident in a diagnosis, coordinate their care, and see the behavioral health notes so that they can really stay involved and engaged with the care,” said Little. “If they’re comfortable, they can eventually take over their prescribing for that patient and really consolidate their care into the primary care practice.”
Empowering Primary Care Providers
This model also addresses a longstanding pain point in primary care: a lack of confidence and support around treating behavioral health conditions. A report from The Advisory Board revealed that while 37% of primary care physicians reported feeling uncomfortable prescribing behavioral health medications, 85% of those same providers still prescribed them—often out of necessity rather than confidence. Without proper behavioral health support, PCPs may make treatment decisions without the nuanced psychiatric insight required for complex conditions like bipolar disorder or PTSD.
The Collaborative Care for Mental Health model developed in this new partnership empowers primary care physicians with access to psychiatric consultation, diagnostic clarity, and ongoing care recommendations. This can be especially meaningful when managing medications for conditions like bipolar disorder, where misdiagnosis or improper prescribing can lead to worsening symptoms or dangerous side effects.
“A lot of primary care providers are not comfortable prescribing medications for bipolar disorder,” Little added. “So the ability to get a psychiatric evaluation and then psychiatric recommendations with concrete recommendations is really going to be a game changer for primary care providers.”
Backed by Research and Funding
The partnership is supported by a $2.5 million award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), a nonprofit organization that funds research aimed at improving health outcomes through patient-centered care. The funding will be used to implement and study the effectiveness of the centralized Collaborative Care for Mental Health model in real-world settings, particularly in communities that traditionally lack access to behavioral health services.
For Concert Health, which raised $42 million in Series B funding in 2022, this partnership is part of a larger mission to revolutionize how mental health care is delivered across the country. The organization already integrates with hundreds of primary care practices and has built a virtual-first infrastructure that makes rapid deployment of Collaborative Care for Mental Health both feasible and scalable.
A Blueprint for the Future of Behavioral Health
This partnership between Concert Health and the AIMS Center represents more than a program—it’s a potential blueprint for the future of behavioral health integration. By leveraging technology, centralizing care management, and partnering with trusted academic institutions, the initiative addresses some of the most persistent challenges in behavioral health care: access, coordination, and scalability.
For patients, it means faster diagnoses, more consistent care, and the ability to receive psychiatric services in the context of their existing primary care relationship. For primary care providers, it means better tools, more support, and greater confidence in managing behavioral health conditions.
As the program rolls out over the next three years, its impact will be closely watched—not only by clinicians and patients, but also by policymakers, health systems, and other stakeholders interested in transforming the fragmented U.S. mental health care system into something more accessible, equitable, and effective.
