How a Multi-Site Behavioral Health Practice Helped Patients Answer “What Am I Even Diagnosed With?”

Freedom Behavioral Health made MindMetrix part of the initial evaluation at every location, giving providers more confidence in their diagnoses. The biggest long-term payoff has been patient retention: patients who understand what they are being treated for trust their provider and stay in care.

THE BIGGEST WIN

Patients who understand their care stay in care

For Freedom, the most important long-term result has been patient retention. When patients finally understand what they are being treated for, and why they may be experiencing certain symptoms, they trust their provider more and have a reason to keep coming back.

The assessments themselves bring in immediate revenue, but the larger value has come from patients who stay engaged in care with the clinic.

THE ORGANIZATION

A community practice built around personalized care

Freedom Behavioral Health Solutions provides therapy, counseling, and psychiatric care for individuals, families, military members, and veterans across seven sites, with both in-person and telehealth visits.

Alongside therapy and medication management, the practice offers advanced options for treatment-resistant depression, including Spravato (esketamine) and Deep TMS, as well as clinician-guided VR therapy. Many of the communities Freedom serves are rural, where comprehensive mental health testing has historically been difficult to access.

THE CHALLENGE

When screening tools only tell part of the story

Common patient questionnaires and screening tools are valuable, but used in isolation they have limits. In rural communities, where comprehensive testing is scarce, providers often had little else to draw on when diagnostic questions came up.

At the same time, more patients were arriving having researched their own symptoms, sometimes concerned about a specific diagnosis, and sometimes after feeling those concerns had been dismissed elsewhere. Providers needed a way to evaluate those concerns thoroughly. Patients needed a clearer understanding of what they were actually being treated for.

THE SOLUTION

An objective layer of clinical information, at every location

MindMetrix came to Freedom through an acquisition. The acquired clinic had already seen its value with its own patients, and between that clinical benefit and the additional revenue that assessments could bring, Freedom chose to implement MindMetrix across all seven of its sites, and the rollout required no configuration.

MindMetrix gives providers objective data to use alongside their clinical judgment. Being able to support one diagnosis while ruling out another gives them a clearer clinical picture and a more informed basis for treatment decisions.

FOR CLINICIANS

Confidence that spreads across the care team

Provider feedback has centered on confidence: in supporting a diagnosis, and in talking through treatment options with patients.

Adoption has also grown beyond prescribers. Freedom’s therapy staff increasingly ask medication management providers to order MindMetrix testing for their patients, a sign that the results are useful across the whole care team.

THE PATIENT EXPERIENCE

Patients who feel heard

After MindMetrix testing, Freedom has seen stronger trust and rapport between providers and patients. On numerous occasions, patients have thanked their providers for helping them understand their diagnoses and why they may be experiencing certain symptoms.

For patients who arrive with a diagnosis already in mind, Freedom’s providers never rely on results in isolation. But MindMetrix opens the door to a fuller, more informed conversation. Whichever way the results point, patients leave knowing their concerns were taken seriously.

THE RESULT

From new tool to standard practice

As awareness of MindMetrix has grown, providers introduce it early in care and use the results to clarify diagnostic questions and build a more focused treatment plan from the start.

Financially, assessments bring in immediate revenue, while the larger, longer-term value continues to come from patient retention.

ADVICE FOR PEERS

Value for providers, patients, and the practice

For other behavioral health practices, Freedom points to three things: a stronger therapeutic relationship, providers who are more confident in their diagnostic and treatment decisions, and patients who feel reassured that their concerns were thoroughly evaluated. On the business side, the practice has seen both short-term revenue through testing and longer-term value through retention and continued engagement in care.