Rula Health has teamed up with Amazon Health Services to expand access to mental healthcare.
Rula’s network of more than 10,000 mental health providers will now be available to Amazon customers via Amazon’s Health Condition Programs. Rula’s network spans more than 80 clinical specialties, across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The aim of the collaboration is to make it easy to connect with personalized mental health services in just a few clicks.
Amazon Health launched the program earlier this year to help customers find and enroll in virtual care benefits available to them through their employer or health plan at no extra cost. Its inaugural partner was the virtual-first chronic care provider Omada Health. Amazon customers can search for mental health support using keywords like “stress relief” or “anxiety relief” to find providers who take their insurance and meet their needs. Rula is available via search, product detail pages or navigating the discovery bar.
Rula says it matches patients to a best-fit provider within minutes, offering appointments as soon as the next day, and provides essential services like 24/7 crisis support. The provider match takes into account factors like language, race, cultural background or specific treatment approaches. About 97% of provider searches result in a perfect match, the company claims.
“Specialty care is closely connected to Rula’s core clinical belief that excellent mental healthcare starts with the right care team,” Doug Newton, M.D., MPH, Rula’s CMO, wrote to Fierce Healthcare in an emailed Q&A. “We know how important it is for patients to work with a provider who has real depth of experience not just as a clinician, but as someone who has specific expertise and experience working with a given condition.”
Rula also believes in the importance of care coordination to ensure that a patient who needs specialized care, like inpatient or emergency services, can be referred as quickly as possible, Newton added.
The company recently expanded its psychiatry services to 31 states. Established in 2019, it aims to improve access to personalized, in-network mental healthcare. It sees all diagnoses in ages over 5 and deploys patient-reported outcome questionnaires at every appointment. The results of those self-reported assessments get integrated into the company’s own EHR.
Rula collaborates with a range of enterprise partners, including health systems, physician groups, employers and universities, per Newton. Its payer partnerships, including Optum, Cigna, Aetna, Anthem and nearly all Blues plans, cover more than 120 million lives.