Virna Little is a social worker by training. Today, however, she spends her time leading Concert Health, a rapidly growing organization that embeds a collaborative approach to mental health care within health practices. This model allows patients to get connected to mental health providers while allowing medical practices to be reimbursed for these crucial services.

Little’s motivation for founding Concert Health stems from her long experience as a social worker at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). She saw firsthand how collaborative behavioral health care can positively affect patients.

“I saw a gentleman who was having significant hallucinations,” she shared, recalling a meeting with a patient in the Bronx, New York, early in her career. “He was struggling.”

Little said she asked the patient about his diagnosis. “He just looked at me and said, ‘No one has ever talked to me before about a diagnosis.’”

“It was such a profound connection,” Little shared. “At that moment, it occurred to me that people weren’t getting the information or the care that they needed when it came to mental health.”

At that moment, it occurred to me that people weren’t getting the information or the care that they needed when it came to mental health.”

After Little talked with the patient about things that he could do to change his daily experience, the patient began taking better care of his physical health. He started medication that helped him manage his hallucinations. His life improved.

Even decades later, Little believes that a lack of integration and collaboration between physical and behavioral health providers remains a major gap in our health care system.

“You wouldn’t have a population of diabetic patients and not know how they were doing,” she said — comparing treating mental health conditions to treating physical conditions.

“If you started diabetic patients on medication you would never just say, ‘Okay, now go out and be free.’ Instead, you monitor sugars. You check in with their specialist. You talk to them about diet. You involve them in making choices that are best for their life,” Little shared.

“For the 10%–15% of people in any given community with depression, anxiety, ADHD, and other mental health diagnoses, our status quo doesn’t take this approach,” she continued. “Instead, we might refer some patients to a specialist or prescribe medications, and then move on.”

Little spent a long time working with patients in the Bronx and looking for ways to scale collaborative care practices to other places.

According to the University of Washington, collaborative care practices lead to better patient outcomes, better patient and provider satisfaction, improved functioning, and reductions in health care costs. However, for a long time, these practices weren’t reimbursed by Medicare or Medicaid.

It wasn’t until the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rolled out new collaborative care billing codes — allowing providers to be reimbursed for these services — that she realized there was an opportunity to have a bigger impact on communities across the country.

She shared, “My co-founder called me when the new codes were announced. He said, ‘Virna, this is it. This is our opportunity to bring collaborative care to primary care practices around the country.’ We began to really flesh our idea out, and Concert Health was born.”

Today, Concert Health partners with major providers and plans in 12 states, and it has served more than 24,000 patients to date.

They help practices identify patients through screening tools, prescription data, and provider referrals, then connect a behavioral care manager directly with patients. Patients can choose to engage via video or telephone. The team provides recommendations for patients who are not getting better. Importantly, they also support medical practices with reimbursement through commercial and noncommercial insurance plans — including Medicaid.

While Concert Health is making a major impact on practices and on patients around the country, Little said that the switch from social worker to innovator hasn’t always been easy.

“I’ve been a woman in healthcare for my entire career and there are many times that that has been really tough,” she shared. “To succeed in this industry — especially as a woman who isn’t a prescriber — you have to be tough, you have to be tenacious, you have to be persistent, and you have to be very mission driven.”

To succeed in this industry – especially as a woman who isn’t a prescriber – you have to be tough, you have to be tenacious, you have to be persistent, and you have to be very mission driven.”

“I now understand the blood, sweat, and tears that go into entrepreneurship,” Little said — sharing that growing Concert Health has given her a whole new respect for people who are starting up organizations. “Sometimes my cofounder and I have to pinch ourselves to realize that we’re going to be at 300 employees and 12 states with Concert Health. You’re just pushing so hard and working so hard that as it begins to take off, you don’t always sit back and appreciate how much you are doing to help people.”

Little looks forward to an even bigger future ahead. In late 2019, the California Health Care Foundation’s Innovation Fund made a strategic investment in Concert Health to continue expanding the model in California. She also sees potential for it across the rest of the country, and particularly in patient groups that have a high need for integrated behavioral health approaches, like women’s centers and pediatric care.

Her commitment to her original goals of providing access to all has never wavered. She explained, “While you can take the girl out of the FQHC, you can’t take the FQHC out of the girl. One of the things I’m most proud of is that half the patients we work with at Concert Health are on Medicaid. Access needs to keep being for all.”

Get in touch to learn more: www.chcf.org | www.concerthealth.com