NeuroFlow acquires measurement-based care company Owl

Owl’s assessment library includes assessments for different populations and personas

NeuroFlow is a digital health platform provider for enabling behavioral health access and engagement, helping organizations find the best treatments for their patients, so they can get treated on an on-going basis, even between visits.

Now the company will be extending its capabilities through the acquisition of measurement-based care technology company Owl, which was announced on Tuesday. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Founded in 2017 by West Point graduate Christopher Molaro after he served in the army for five years and then found that his fellow veterans, as well as civilians, lacked access to much needed mental health services, NeuroFlow helps increase access and get patients the care they need by allowing providers to blend behavioral health into their overall care and remotely monitor patients.

This is done by combining provider workflow augmentation solutions, clinical care dashboards, and a patient-facing application, with the end result being the ability to monitor patient progress, compliance and outcomes on an on-going basis. End user generated data, including validated assessment scores, mood and sleep ratings, journal responses and more are fed into NeuroFlow’s clinical-facing web platform to remotely monitor user progress, risk stratify populations, and enhance care coordination efforts.

The solution is meant to alleviate pressure on providers caused by the growing number of behavioral health patients that are outstripping the supply of behavioral health resources.

In the last two years, NeuroFlow launched in healthcare organizations like Novant Health, Atlantic Health System, Emory, Centene, and Aflac, while deepening its commitment to suicide prevention, improving it NLP technology for identification of suicidal ideation and expanding its Response Services team, which contacts individuals with potential suicidal ideation and connects them to the appropriate care.

The company also won Mission Daybreak, a $20 million challenge designed to help the VA develop new suicide prevention strategies for Veterans.

Owl, meanwhile, is a measurement-based care solution for behavioral health providers and excels at arming organizations with the data they need to measure clinical performance and lower costs. The company works directly with behavioral health providers as well as health plans. 

The company's recent impact study with Colorado Access, the largest public sector health plan in Colorado, and Aurora Mental Health and Recovery, a community health center, showed that patients who consistently used Owl for measurement-based care saw 28% per member per month savings compared to the control group, as well as a 75% reduction in psychiatric in-patient admissions, while the control group showed no significant change.

The company also demonstrated a 63% reduction in psychiatric emergency room visits and net estimated annual savings of $25 million when the Owl results are applied to the Colorado Access population of patients.

These results "demonstrate the powerful impact of consistent behavioral health measurement on quality of care and total cost of care," Sara Cohen, head of marketing for NeuroFlow, told VatorNews. "We’re excited to replicate this success nationally."

The acquisition, which builds on NeuroFlow's purchase of Capital Solution Design, a measurement-based care solution for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in 2023, will allow the NeuroFlow to create a suite of solutions that extends the delivery of feedback-informed care across healthcare settings. That includes expanding NeuroFlow’s footprint, as the merged company covering behavioral health providers, health systems, health plans, the VA, and DOD. 

"In the near term, we will continue to deliver the same solutions and implementation strategies that are currently driving value for our customers. Over time we will identify the most impactful areas of opportunity, and we will evolve our solution offerings to meet the market’s most pressing needs," said Cohen.

The Owl team adds clinical assessments to NeuroFlow’s library, which now totals over 400 assessments, in addition to analytics capabilities that allow NeuroFlow to measure the efficacy of it partners’ programs. The combined entity will be responsible for over 17 million lives on the platform and support payers and providers in all 50 states.

"NeuroFlow and Owl are coming together to drive our shared mission of improving health outcomes across the care continuum through robust behavioral health analytics and feedback-informed care - from population health to primary care to behavioral health specialty care," said Cohen.

One thing the merger will not do, though, is disrupt NeuroFlow's customers’ existing programs with NeuroFlow and Owl.

"NeuroFlow and Owl have a very similar approach for partnering with customers, one that is focused on innovation and close collaboration. We will benefit from greater scale and resources as a combined organization and we look forward to bringing these to bear in our relationships with customers."

(Image source: owl.health)