How Wellmark is addressing rising mental health care costs
Employees are increasingly seeking mental health support and resources. In an August 2025 survey, seventy-three percent of employers reported an increase in the use of mental health and substance use services between June and July 2025, with 17 percent anticipating a future increase.
Employers are now faced with increased costs from growing usage. But employee mental health isn’t the only contributing factor, or even the largest — pharmacy and more serious medical conditions are also key cost-drivers.
Wellmark remains fiercely focused on mental health and helping employers make mental health care more affordable for employees. Encouraging employees to accurately identify a mental health concern, navigate support and seek the right care sooner helps keep costs from escalating downstream. And that pays off significantly for employers, preventing productivity loss, absenteeism, turnover and costly long-term care and ER visits.
How to recognize employee mental health concerns
To support employee mental health and avoid confusion and escalating downstream costs, you need to know exactly what mental health encompasses. So do your employees. Most think of anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or eating disorders. Yes, but mental health concerns can also look like:
- Emotional well-being: expressing emotions, regulating feelings.
- Thinking and attention: concentrating, remembering, making decisions.
- Behavior and habits: sleeping, routines, motivation.
- Functioning: meeting responsibilities at work or home most of the time.
Wellmark offers your employees support for a wide range of mental health concerns. They can access several tools and resources as part of their core benefit plan.
Share mental health resources with your employees
Wellmark has made it easy to educate employees on the mental health benefits available through their plan. You’ll find an entire mental health package on the Marketing Toolkit.
Navigating mental health support through your health plan
To help employees seek the right care sooner (and avoid escalating costs if a condition worsens), direct them to the following on myWellmark®:
- Behavioral health case management: Employees can talk to dedicated case management nurses and social workers to help access mental health care, coordinate care across providers and understand plan coverage.
- A dedicated mental health support section on myWellmark: Once logged in, employees have access to self-screening assessments for anxiety and depression. They can also find the closest available providers and virtual care options, as well as see estimated costs before going to a clinic.
- BeWell 24/7® Nurse Support: Employees can talk to health professionals around-the-clock about health symptoms, coverage questions and finding in-network providers.
- Wellmark Connect powered by WebMD®: This personalized digital platform delivers mental and physical health content, podcasts, videos, recipes, daily habit-tracking tools and more to help employees take control of their health.
Expand your mental health support strategy
Employers can further support employee mental health by adding these benefits to their coverage:
- WebMD® Health Coaching for Stress Management: Employees get one-on-one support with improving self-awareness and mindfulness, practicing self-care and building positive relationships.
- Doctor On Demand® Behavioral Health Coaching: Employees talk to a certified, accredited coach about stress, sleep issues, relationship challenges, weight management, burnout and more.1
- meQuilibriumTM (meQ): This solution pairs employees with an online personal coach to increase their resilience and emotional well-being while improving job performance.
Mental health trends shaping the future of work
The reality is, employee mental health care needs won’t be diminishing anytime soon, with 1 in 5 U.S. adults experiencing a mental health condition and more than 50 percent of working parents missing work at least once a month to tend to their children’s mental health.
In response, Wellmark is continually working to raise mental health awareness and expand support and services, ensuring employees understand their mental health concerns and get the right care sooner. This helps prevent employers from facing rising costs if a mental health condition escalates.
Reach out to your authorized Wellmark representative with questions about supporting employee mental health.
Disclosures
1Included in small group and individual and family plans (IFP) under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Available for an additional cost for fully insured and self-funded large groups.
WebMD® is a registered trademark of WebMD Health Services Group, Inc. WebMD is a separate company that provides wellness services on behalf of Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
Doctor On Demand by Included Health is a separate company providing an online telehealth solution for Wellmark members. Doctor On Demand® is a registered mark of Included Health, Inc.
For plans that include benefits for mental health treatment, Doctor On Demand benefits may include treatment for certain psychological conditions, emotional issues and substance use disorder. Services performed by Doctor On Demand clinicians are covered. For more information, call Wellmark at the number on your ID card or call Wellmark Customer Service.
meQuilibrium™ is a trademark of New Life Solution, Inc. meQuilibrium is a proactive app to build a resilient workforce. meQuilibrium is an independent company that does not provide Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield products or services.