Carrum Health, the leader in value-based Centers of Excellence (COE) for specialty care, and Lyra Health, the leader in workforce mental health solutions, today announced a strategic partnership that integrates Carrum’s specialty care services including surgical, cancer care, and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment with Lyra’s behavioral health services to address a critical gap in employer benefits.
The bidirectional partnership enables seamless care coordination for some of the highest-need, highest-cost groups to improve clinical outcomes. Carrum connects members to a curated network of high-quality care for surgery, cancer, and substance use treatment, while Lyra provides comprehensive mental health support. For mutual clients, this integration enables seamless care while reducing costs.
Access to effective mental health care can be challenging with long wait times, provider shortages and high out-of-pocket costs. Behavioral health care leads all specialties with out-of-network spending at 25-30%, with substance use treatment seeing costs surge up to 40% out-of-network—the steepest increase in any healthcare segment.1
The partnership ensures that support doesn’t end at discharge. For SUD patients, this means a warm hand-off to Lyra’s sustainable recovery programs; for surgical and oncology patients, it means proactive intervention to address the anxiety and depression often interconnected with chronic illness.
As a specialty care COE partner, Carrum’s service lines are integrated into Lyra’s workflow, enabling Lyra’s Care Navigators to refer members who may need specialty care services to Carrum. Likewise, Carrum members going through specialty care treatment will have access to Lyra’s mental health services for step-up and step-down recovery care.
“Behavioral health and physical health aren’t separate challenges, they’re interconnected,” said Matthew Eurey, Chief Commercial Officer at Carrum Health. “Our members facing cancer, surgery, or substance use disorder need support across the full care continuum, not just at the point of crisis. Partnering with and being integrated in Lyra’s best-in-class solution ensures our members get coordinated care from early intervention through intensive treatment and back to sustainable recovery, addressing both their immediate health needs and their mental wellbeing.”
What This Means for Employers
The collaboration addresses a pressing business challenge: mental health care has emerged as a top cost driver for employer health plans for the first time, with nearly 80% of large employers reporting increased utilization of mental health and substance use disorder services2. Yet fragmented care delivery leaves members vulnerable to falling through the cracks between lower-acuity virtual care and higher-acuity treatment needs, often resulting in costly out-of-network claims and poor outcomes.
Both company models are proven to help employers reduce overall medical spend and shorten disability durations, and this partnership extends that impact for members who need it the most – those facing high-acuity specialty care and behavioral health challenges.
“The behavioral health care gap is particularly pronounced, and particularly costly in these high acuity populations,” said Sean McBride, Lyra Health’s President of Employer Solutions. “When members get stuck between services that don’t talk to each other, it leads to preventable crises and costly out-of-network claims. We’re partnering with Carrum because they’ve built the infrastructure for true care coordination in specialty care to get people better faster and bend the cost curve for employers.”
The Carrum-Lyra partnership delivers:
- Better outcomes with integrated support: Coordinated, guided pathways connecting Lyra’s early intervention services with Carrum’s outpatient and inpatient treatment, and back to Lyra for ongoing recovery support and sustained outcomes.
- Cost containment: Reduces out-of-network spending through coordinated care pathways and bundled payment models that deliver predictable costs and measurable outcomes.
- Simplified contracting: Lyra members gain convenient access to Carrum’s specialty care network, as do Carrum’s clients to Lyra’s services, without additional procurement, eliminating the need for employers to contract separately for mental health counseling and high-acuity treatment.
What This Means for Members
Members of Carrum and Lyra’s mutual clients will benefit from fully integrated care coordination, making step-down and step-up care seamless across services.
Members benefit from:
- Rapid access: Fast connection to substance use treatment providers within one day for urgent needs plus immediate virtual mental health support through Lyra for members facing stress, anxiety, or depression
- No gaps in care: Access mental health support while receiving cancer or substance use treatment, or surgical care
- No cost barriers: Members receive care without worrying about out-of-pocket costs
- Evidence-based, accountable care: Access to outcomes-focused providers using proven treatment protocols
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