Digital mental health company AbleTo is adding on a slew of new features, including a care navigation tool and a one-stop-shop app.

The first new tool, called AbleTo Connect works as a digital clinical screener. Users are able to input their health history and personal history. The tool then matches the user to AbleTo products that match their needs and can also set up the client’s first appointment.

The company is also adding a new app where patients can access all of AbleTo’s services, manage their upcoming appointments and tap into cognitive behavioral therapy techniques.

AbleTo Therapy+, the company’s one-on-one therapy platform, is adding new digital tools to support a patient’s progress between sessions. Starting with the depression space, therapists can look at activities and progress over time.

WHY IT MATTERS

Across the United States, there is a shortage of healthcare providers. According to the Kaiser Family Fund, only 26.9% of the mental health care needs are met.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for mental health practitioners skyrocketed. According to the Kaiser Family Fund, 4 in 10 adults in the U.S. reported anxiety or depressive disorder symptoms during the pandemic.

Today startups are looking to alleviate some of the pressures that the mental health system is under through digital tools. 

THE LARGER TREND

In April of 2020 reports surfaced that UnitedHealth Group’s Optum was in late-stage talks with AbleTo about a possible acquisition worth roughly $470 million. The company has since clarified that Optum did make a strategic investment in AbleTo, however, it was not technically an acquistion. 

The company has made some acquisitions of its own. In 2019, it purchased fellow digital mental health company Joyable. Specifically, Joyable brought to the table a digital mental health coach.

Last June, AbleTo rolled out a number of new services, including a suite of CBT tools that payers can integrate into their offerings for broad member populations.

The mental health space is a hot market in digital health. According to Rock Health, behavioral digital health companies scored $2.4 billion in 2020. This was made up of 67 deals, worth an average of $36 million.