Ketamine therapy is offered nationwide as a health benefit for employees

A national provider of workplace insurance for psychedelic therapy recently partnered with two new companies to expand its network and offer ketamine-assisted therapy as a health benefit nationwide.

“Nationwide availability represents a pivotal moment in fulfilling Enthea’s mission to help employers with mental health issues in the workplace,” said Sherry Rais, CEO and co-founder of Enthea.

Enthea is a company focused on providing psychedelic-assisted therapies to employee health plans, and ketamine is the first and only drug of its kind with known psychedelic and/or hallucinatory effects to be approved in any way by the FDA for use in mental health treatments became. Enthea recently announced a partnership with two companies: Skylight Psychedelics and Innerwell. Both companies help facilitate remote and on-site psychedelic-assisted experiences.

“Skylight Psychedelics is excited to partner with Enthea,” said Scott Bienenfeld, MD, co-founder. “By working together, we will help people overcome a variety of mental illnesses by expanding access to cutting-edge, often life-saving treatments such as ketamine-assisted therapy and other new modalities of psychedelic medicine.”

This partnership allows certain eligible employees to potentially receive ketamine therapy without paying the exorbitant fees often associated with the thriving field of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Session prices for a single psilocybin experience are over $2,000 in places like Oregon. Estimates for the average price of a ketamine session are all over the place depending on where you look, but the most common estimate of the cost for an uninsured patient is $400 to $800 per session.

Very few people are currently eligible to take advantage of these benefits, 1,500 nationwide, Enthea estimates to Vice, but it hopes to increase that number to 200,000 by the end of next year.

“Investing in employee mental health is crucial. Innerwell is proud to partner with Enthea to help forward-thinking employers offer ketamine and other medication-assisted treatments that deliver lasting, transformative results,” said Lisa Kennedy, CEO of Innerwell. “Our team of specially trained clinicians provides compassionate care, while our data-driven approach will help accelerate the introduction of these new treatments by proving the effectiveness of these innovative modalities.”

The FDA first approved ketamine-assisted therapy via a nasal spray under the brand name Spravato in conjunction with an oral antidepressant in 2019. Since then, numerous clinics and doctors have offered the sometimes controversial practice. Some estimates put the number of clinics nationwide at between 500 and 750, but there is no national registry so it’s hard to say. In 2022, the ketamine clinic market was valued at around $3.1 billion.

Enthea has been offering insurance coverage for ketamine therapy since last year and presented data from a year in which Dr. Bronner’s soap company was offered ketamine-assisted therapy and said employees who used the service experienced a drastic reduction in symptoms of mental health disorders. According to data in a press release from Enthea, depression symptoms were reduced by 67% and PTSD symptoms were reduced by 86%.

“The health and well-being of our employees is at the core of how we think about benefits and compensation. “Offering coverage for ketamine-assisted therapy is in the interest of providing our workforce with tools to achieve the best quality of life and mental health care options,” said Michael Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner’s, in a prepared statement announcing the program’s launch in 2022. “Our family and our company are no strangers to depression and anxiety. We are deeply concerned about the mental health crisis facing society, particularly in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Given our commitment to this issue, this employee benefit is the next logical step.”

Due to the positive data from Dr. Bronner’s case study and new partnerships with Innerwell and Starlight, Enthea’s provider network has expanded significantly enough to now offer these services to employers across the country. Enthea’s benefit packages can be added to existing health, dental and vision plans, according to the press release.

“The providers in Enthea’s network are critical to our mission to ensure access to high-quality, affordable ketamine-assisted therapy,” said Andrew Ninnimann, director of networks and strategic initiatives at Enthea. “We remain committed to working with companies that are at the forefront of innovation when it comes to developments that are transforming the mental health industry.”

Employers interested in offering Enthea’s services just need to get in touch via this handy little hyperlink to find out more.