IMS and Evolved MD Join Forces With New Behavioral Health Partnership

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – After an impactful year delivering life-changing and enriching mental health services to thousands of patients across the Southwest, behavioral health integration leader evolvedMD proudly announces that the company now embeds its transformational services at select Integrated Medical Services (IMS) locations across the Valley, providing much-need behavioral health care at a time when Arizona ranks 47th in the country for access to care and behavioral health awareness rises to a national conversation.

"The addition of behavioral health support from evolvedMD into our clinics enables our providers and staff to offer the full spectrum of IMS healthcare services to our patients; creating closer relationships with them and leading to better clinical outcomes,"

IMS CEO Monique Delgado says. "Our providers are now able to address these issues with evolvedMD behavioral health specialists on-site and can work together as one team."

Nearly 50 million American adults experienced a mental illness or episode in 2019, almost 20 percent of the adult population. Yet more than half of U.S. adults with a known mental illness do not receive treatment. The data is even worse for those 60 and older, reports the World Health Organization, with more than 20 percent suffering from a behavioral or neurological disorder.

Thankfully, more of us are discussing behavioral health since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and more primary care practices are integrating behavioral health support as part of routine care. Such is the case at select Integrated Medical Services locations, where evolvedMD has made it easy to deliver comprehensive care and improve clinical outcomes through its enhanced Psychiatric Collaborative Care Model, an evidence-based program for treating depression, anxiety and other conditions. The two companies will work together; adopting evolvedMD's proven integration model that has become the gold-standard for the industry and have initiated plans to fully integrate across IMS' entire practice.

"The last few years have demonstrated a clear need for integrating behavioral health in modern primary,' said Erik Osland, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of evolvedMD. "With our relationship with IMS, we are effectively accelerating access to care for thousands of patients and their families across the Phoenix metro area and beyond. Fully embedding our services in IMS locations is an incredible milestone, and proof-positive that we’re creating meaningful change."

By working collaboratively through IMS primary care, patients are immediately put at ease communicating with someone they are already familiar with – their primary care provider – and behavioral health screenings and support becomes routine and stigmas demystified.

Other key benefits:

• Primary care becomes comprehensive, whole-body care, addressing both physical and mental health

• Reduces stigmas and stereotypes, and empowers patients to seek help from a mental health professional in the same building as their PCP at the primary care practice they trust

• Identifies and treats adverse mental health conditions before they become severe, reducing return visits and increasing time between visits

• Streamlines communication and collaboration between PCPs and their teams, closing communication gaps and promoting continuity of care for improved patient outcomes

• Prevents burnout and improves provider well-being so they can consistently deliver high-quality care

"In traditional healthcare models, a patient’s therapist and primary care physician rarely work together or even know each other. That doesn’t help the patient, and it doesn’t help medical professionals understand the full picture," Osland says. "But we are closing that information gap where we staff primary care facilities with a variety of behavioral health clinicians and specialists, giving them the resources, training, and the structure for the best results. Everyone is onsite, on the same page, supported, and focused on the patient."

Delgado agrees that patients are best served when primary care and behavioral health work together to ensure the best outcome.

"A primary care provider may see the immediate need for a psychiatric consultation or a referral to a behavioral health manager, which is initiated right away since evolvedMD is now part of the fabric of the practice,” she says. “The IMS PCP works in concert with evolvedMD staff to address social determinants or other issues factoring into a patient's well-being, taking a holistic approach to the patient's overall health."

About Integrated Medical Services Integrated Medical Services (IMS) is the largest, independent, multi-specialty provider group in Arizona with clinic locations throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area, and surrounding rural communities. Currently, we have over 70 physicians and providers across nine different specialties. Including, Primary Care, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Orthopedics, Neurology, Endocrinology, and Behavioral Health. We believe that offering more medical specialties to our patients creates a better experience and leads to improved outcomes.

About evolvedMD Launched in 2017, evolvedMD is leading the integration of behavioral health services in modern primary care. Uniquely upfront and ongoing, our distinctive model places behavioral health specialists onsite within a practice. evolvedMD offers an economically viable and better way to integrate behavioral health that ultimately drives improved patient outcomes.

CONTACT

Sentari Minor evolvedMD 602-396-8901 sminor@evolvedmd.com