The costs of treating complex mental health issues can seem daunting for employers — but this company is putting a tool in their hands to price out nontraditional benefit options themselves.
Employers are seeing a 9% increase in healthcare costs for 2025, and also have to navigate the financial burden of untreated mental health conditions, which can cost organizations up to $60,000 annually in lost earnings. Yet finding the right solutions at the right price point is challenging in the mental health space, says Brian Dolan, president of mental health benefit platform TARA Mind.
"It's not that the focus on mental health that employers have been doing hasn't been effective," Dolan says. "It still remains incomplete from a therapeutic standpoint."
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Currently, depression is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. for individuals ages 15 to 44, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, and another 25% of adults experience a diagnosable mental disorder in any given year. And while many companies offer mental health benefits like unlimited counseling sessions through an EAP, 30% of adults who suffer from depression have what's called treatment-resistant depression (TRD), according to the National Library of Medicine. Individuals with TRD don't respond adequately to standard treatments, such as antidepressants or psychotherapy.
"The current solutions are all wonderful things that have helped lots of people address and cope with their mental health challenges," Dolan says. "But this cohort of individuals have tried [those options] and it didn't help them. This small portion of the population may be driving as much as a third of total medical expenses for the employer."
To tap into solutions outside of traditional mental health benefits, TARA Mind recently introduced their Mental Health Savings Calculator, which can be found for free on the company's website. Employers manually input important data about their company's healthcare spending, including the number of employees and the approximate dollar amount they're spending on mental health coverage. Based on existing data, the tool then identifies how many employees are likely suffering from TRD (as well as dependents) and how much it would cost to expand coverage into more experimental treatments, like ketamine-assisted therapy, or electroconvulsive therapy.
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The team at TARA Mind was inspired by their CEO's journey with TRD, which led him to ketamine-assisted therapy, a solution that cost him out of pocket, despite having a robust benefit package.
"IV Ketamine, which has been found to be the most effective for TRD, is a generic drug that's been on the World Health Organization's list of critical drugs in the world for years," Dolan says. "IV ketamine is also rapid acting, so in addition to the treatment cost being lower, within the first year it can also reduce healthcare utilization."
Still, taking a risk on lesser known therapies and medications without knowing how much it will cost or how successful the use case will be is a lot to ask from organizations. TARA's calculator helps employers make smarter decisions with a better ROI for employees, and the business, too.
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"The tool is intended to highlight both the clinical opportunity to help these individuals and the financial opportunity that's associated with improved quality and lower cost," Dolan says. "In addition, by improving the health of these individuals, organizations could simultaneously reduce their disability expenses, absenteeism and turnover."
Making any kind of significant change to the current benefit landscape takes time, but the introduction and implementation of tech tools could speed up that process, according to Dolan. All it takes is a few employers willing to educate themselves on new opportunities.
"The current mental health support system helps many, but not all," he says. "And we really need to close the gap."
