In today’s tight labor market, New Hampshire businesses are doing everything they can to attract and retain great employees. But too many are overlooking one of the most important drivers of workforce well-being, productivity and retention: access to quality mental health care.
Mental health is not a “nice to have” benefit — it’s essential. And in 2025, any health plan that doesn’t put behavioral health front and center is missing the mark.
If you are an employer in New Hampshire reevaluating your health plan, here are five critical mental health resources you should demand from your health insurance provider. The right offerings do not just improve employee wellness, they can also dramatically reduce absenteeism, lower overall health care costs, and make your company a place people want to work.
Panelist: Maria Proulx, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire, anthem.com.
How can you provide on-demand access to mental health providers wherever people are?
Traditional in-office therapy cannot be the only option. With rising demand and limited supply, especially in rural areas, employees need multiple access points: virtual, in-home and on-site.
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire is leading the way here. We recently grew our roster of outpatient, residential and virtual mental health providers across the state. We are also the first to partner with Aware Recovery Care, a 52-week, in-home program for substance use disorder, and Aspire365, which delivers intensive in-home mental health treatment for teens and adults.
This type of care model reflects the realities of employees’ lives and breaks down barriers to getting help early and before issues escalate.
What are ways to integrate behavioral health with primary care?
Mental and physical health are deeply interconnected. Depression, anxiety and stress contribute to higher rates of chronic disease, yet too often, our mental health and physical health care is treated in silos.
Forward-thinking health plans like Anthem now offer integrated behavioral health, where primary care providers work hand-in-hand with mental health specialists.
Anthem’s approach emphasizes collaboration between physical and mental health services, leveraging digital tools and data to identify behavioral health needs during routine medical visits. This helps catch problems early, close treatment gaps and coordinate care more effectively.
When mental health becomes part of everyday health care, as opposed to a separate system, employees get better support, and employers have a less absent and more present workforce.
How can a mobile-first experience meet people where they are?
Let’s face it, if your employees cannot easily find care, track progress or access support quickly, they are less likely to engage. That’s why mobile tools are more important now than ever before.
Anthem’s Sydney Health app is a game-changer. It gives our members access to review their mental health benefits and virtual therapy options, a symptom checker, claims information and wellness tracking tools — all in one place.
Sydney empowers people to take small but consistent steps toward better mental health. This includes scheduling a virtual therapy session, checking in on their mood or exploring stress-reduction resources after a long day.
The goal? Make mental health care feel less like an appointment and more like an everyday resource.
What are options for specialized support for substance use disorder or youth mental health?
Substance use disorder and youth mental health are two areas where demand continues to grow and where traditional health plans have historically fallen short.
Anthem is actively addressing both.
Our partnership with Aware Recovery Care brings intensive, in-home substance use disorder treatment to individuals struggling with addiction through an innovative model that keeps people in their communities while receiving high-quality care.
By delivering care at home, rather than in a distant facility, members can work on their recovery while navigating the real-life environments, relationships and challenges that have historically contributed to their substance use.
For teens and families, Aspire365’s inhome support creates a safe, structured alternative to inpatient hospitalization or long waitlists. It’s an approach designed to meet today’s most urgent mental health challenges head-on.
In addition, Anthem was the first health plan in New Hampshire to contract with InStride Health, a virtual provider delivering highly specialized care for children and young adults ages 7 to 22 with moderate to severe anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). InStride offers evidence-based treatment that goes far beyond standard therapy, combining exposure response prevention, coaching, family support and digital tools in a wraparound model that’s both clinically effective and deeply accessible.
Employers should ask their health plan:
What are you doing to support these vulnerable populations? If there’s no clear answer, it might be time to explore other options.
What are employee engagement programs that actually work?
Even the best mental health benefits don’t matter if people don’t know how to use them or feel comfortable doing so. Engagement is everything.
Anthem’s strategy goes beyond brochures. Through tailored digital outreach, on-site wellness partnerships and intuitive digital tools, we help members better understand and access their behavioral health benefits. This makes it easier to take that first, often hardest, step toward care.
And our plan design reflects a deep commitment to mental health accessibility. That’s why Anthem has lowered copays for behavioral health visits across the board, making it easier for members to get the help they need, regardless of provider.
We’ve also eliminated cost shares for in-network primary care and outpatient behavioral health office and virtual visits for children under age 19 in certain plans, a move designed to support early intervention and reduce financial stress for families.
Employers have the power to normalize mental health care. Start by choosing a plan that makes it easy, affordable and stigma-free for employees to get the help they need.
Why does mental health equal business health?
The data is clear: Investing in mental health is not just the right thing to do, it is essential to building a resilient, thriving workforce and workplace. Poor mental health contributes to rising health care costs and takes a measurable toll on employee engagement, performance and well-being.
But with the right plan in place, businesses can shift the story — supporting healthier lives while fostering a more connected, productive and sustainable work environment.
Anthem is helping employers across the state do exactly that by prioritizing behavioral health access, integrating care, and bringing innovative solutions like in-home treatment and mobile navigation tools to the forefront.
As a New Hampshire employer, you have a choice. Make sure your health plan reflects your commitment to the people who power your business — mind and body.
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