InStride Health Partners with Aetna, Expanding Access to Specialty Mental Healthcare for Children and Families

InStride Health offers comprehensive, evidenced-based treatment specifically for pediatric anxiety and OCD, now available throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut

BOSTON, Feb. 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- InStride Health, an outpatient provider of specialty pediatric anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) treatment, is now available to Aetna customers in Massachusetts and Connecticut as an in-network benefit. Over 90% of combined commercial lives throughout

Massachusetts and Connecticut now have access to InStride Health’s evidence-backed program consisting of coordinated clinical teams specifically trained to work with the pediatric population ages seven to 22 and their families, empowering them with the tools and practice to build habits that lead to lasting change.  

One in three children in the U.S. will live with an anxiety disorder and/or OCD by the time they turn 18, and many will struggle to find the care they need due to a shortage of qualified providers, lack of insurance coverage, extensive waitlists, or insufficient treatment standards relying on episodic visits with no support between appointments. InStride Health offers a virtual, evidenced-based treatment program for anxiety and OCD with a focus on moderate to severe conditions causing significant life impairment such as social isolation, school avoidance, family disruption, physical symptoms, or depression. Unlike today’s treatment standard that is limited to weekly visits or siloed provider care, InStride Health provides a dedicated, collaborative, multi-discipline care team highly trained in working with the pediatric population. This coordinated clinical team is virtually accessible, consistently providing the tools and practice to build habits so patients are empowered to graduate from the program and successfully apply their learnings into everyday life.

“As we enter a new year, we remain dedicated to expanding access to high-quality specialty care for children and young adults with anxiety and/or OCD,” said John Voith, Co-founder and CEO of InStride Health. “We are thrilled to partner with Aetna to provide families throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut with immediate access to care that leads to lasting change. This partnership reinforces our commitment to ensuring more kids, teens, and young adults receive the appropriate treatment from providers with specific clinical expertise, and we look forward to expanding to additional markets.”

Through individual and family therapy, parent groups, medication management (if needed), and coaching during and between sessions, care is delivered by a dedicated team consisting of a therapist, psychiatrist, and an exposure coach who follow the patient through every step of the program. Together, they provide care grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the gold-standard for treating anxiety and OCD, with a focus on exposure therapy. Additionally, the InStride Health program is time-limited by individual length of need to ensure families adopt the tools and practices to navigate and manage their condition in everyday life rather than create a dependency on perpetual therapy.

InStride Health

InStride Health provides specialty outpatient care for pediatric Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and related presentations. Co-founded by Harvard-trained clinicians, the InStride Health care model is grounded in evidence-based treatment, specifically Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with an emphasis on Exposure therapy. A dedicated, multidisciplinary team of a psychiatrist, therapist, and an exposure coach is paired with each child to provide real-time support using everyday tools like text and a video- and chat-enabled mobile application. InStride Health accepts most major insurance plans in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia.