Aetna Partnership Aims to Increase, Improve Suicide Prevention

Aetna has partnered with a behavioral health education platform to provide healthcare professionals with resources for suicide prevention.

Aetna and CVS Health are aiming to reduce suicide attempts among their members by 20 percent before 2025. To that end, this newly announced partnership will help create a provider network that focuses specifically on suicide prevention.

Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, and the second leading cause in people between the ages of 10 and 34, according to the CDC website. In 2019, over one million adults attempted suicide.

“Behavioral health providers are uniquely positioned to have a meaningful impact on the mental wellbeing of not just Aetna members, but our entire community,” Cara McNulty, president of Aetna Behavioral Health, said in the press release.

“As part of our steadfast commitment to suicide reduction and prevention, I’m excited that we are expanding our efforts to work more closely with providers and better support them in intervening successfully for those at risk of suicide.”

The payer plans to improve suicide prevention among members by educating its providers.

Employee assistance program providers and clinicians in Aetna’s network will be able to use the education platform to obtain certification in suicide prevention. Licensed clinician social workers who work at CVS MinuteClinic can also use the platform. Over 280,000 behavioral health providers and clinicians in the payer’s network will have access to these resources.

The platform offers educational courses that use a variety of methods including role-play and video instruction to train providers. Aetna helped its co-collaborator, Psych Hub, design the curriculum.

Participants will receive a certificate after they successfully complete all of the courses and submit a case study assignment. 

The platform also provides resources and tools for patients that can help support their mental health and wellbeing.

“Our industry must leverage innovations that make healthcare education accessible to providers on the front lines combating the global mental health and addiction crisis,” Marjorie Morrison, chief executive officer of Psych Hub, stated in the press release.

“Nowhere is there a greater need than in suicide prevention, and we are honored to collaborate with Aetna to support their care providers and ultimately, save lives.”

Prior to this partnership, Aetna implemented other measures to address its members’ mental health and wellbeing. The payer provides suicide prevention screenings for all patients that are seen by a clinician, whether or not they are showing at-risk behavior, according to the press release.

In a method unique to Aetna, the payer sends out postcards to members who experienced an inpatient stay after a suicide attempt. The postcards are a chance for the payer to check in with the member and let them know they have support and resources available if they need it.

Aetna’s collaboration with Psych Hub will equip employers with the resources they need to better address their employees’ mental health. Other payers and employers alike have worked to acknowledge this need in the past.

To address concerns surrounding the lack of suicide prevention and opioid abuse treatment in employer behavioral health programs, researchers presented employers with suggestions on how to improve.

Their recommendations included offering comprehensive behavioral health coverage, creating a culture where employees could discuss mental health stigma-free, utilizing telemedicine and in-person services, and modifying benefits programs to address wellbeing holistically.

Another payer, Independent Health, partnered with a mental health awareness and patient advocacy organization to inform employers of different ways to identify and address mental health conditions in the workplace.

CVS Health and Aetna have continued to prioritize their members’ mental health. The payer implemented several measures to help women, mothers, and caregivers prioritize their mental health following the heightened stress they experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.