Bright Heart Health is a virtual intensive outpatient (IOP or V-IOP) eating disorder treatment program. It treats adult men and women with eating disorders and co-occurring conditions (including mental health, addiction and chronic pain). Bright Heart Health offers two eating disorder tracks, run completely separately from each other: – Eating Disorder Intensive Outpatient Program, and – Binge Eating Disorder Intensive Outpatient Program.
Currently Bright Heart Health serves the following areas, and takes Medicaid, Medicare, and Commercial insurance:
AREAS WE SERVE
- Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky - Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina - North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
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I just called Bright Heart Health and they said that they don’t have any providers licensed in my state (Maryland) at the moment. They really shouldn’t say they serve almost 50 states without having providers licensed in all the states they claim to serve.
Not international clients
Lists that they take Medicaid for Michigan but upon calling them, they don’t accept that for the ED IOP.
I found their website to be very misleading as well. They included WI on their list of approved states but when I called they said they don’t have any ED services there. So disappointing.
They said that about NJ too, I just called and they said they don’t offer ED services in that state because they don’t have any providers who are licensed in NJ.
yeah their site looks too good to be true. There’s absolutely no way they’re relatively new and already licensed in every state and take every state’s Medicare and Medicaid. Look how long it’s taking Within to get licensed everywhere and get in network with insurances. I would really like to know what states they ACTUALLY offer ED services and what insurances they ACTUALLY take. Plus how can they get away with these wild claims on their site?
This is all infuriating. I was stunned when I saw that they said they took both Medicare and Medicaid – I literally gasped. But I (and this shows my naivety/blind hope when it comes to pronouncements of new options for ED care that increase access) assumed that no one would dare claim to take Medicare without actually being able to – Medicare is SO highly regulated and has some of the worst penalties on programs that try to take it without being approved by the feds to do so – so naively assumed that must mean their claims had to be at least mostly true… Fearmongering about Medicare and Medicaid fraud is one of the things that caused Medicare and federal Medicaid (primarily states that haven’t expanded their Medicaid) to cover so few places in the first place! Thank you so much everybody for posting these updates! Definitely keep calling to ask whether they have an ED program yet in your state and if so whether it takes Medicaid or Medicare, and post what you learn here. If you’re up for it, tell whoever answers the phone that you would be interested in doing the program and for them to reach out to you and let you know once it is up and running. Hopefully if we can demonstrate that there is enough demand, it will make them more likely to move forward on actually offering that which they claim. I can update their page here on EDTR to reflect what is ACTUALLY available.
In live in NJ and they said that they can provide services in NY and PA, but not NJ:(
I live in Idaho and they are not here as well. I think it’s very deceptive for them to advertise as offering service everywhere when they don’t; how does that benefit them other than to have to field a lot of useless calls? As someone on Medicare who is far from resources, and who can’t travel, for people like me it offers a cruel false hope.
I’m in Virginia and i contacted them and they said they do not take Medicare and VA Medicaid even though it’s listed on their website they do for Virginia
I did their program from April 1-Aug 8ish 2016. I called in Oct 2015. At that time the program was relatively new. My insurance they used was Medicaid. I had both Medicare/ Medicaid but worked directly with my state to get it covered. All the programs in my state refused to accept me. The people at the top in my state kind if got to know me well because I didn’t take no on denials so I had hearings at the state level. Probably a good thing because I was no longer a number or name on a piece of paper. I actually hated the fact that my state was switching over more to a managed care system where you had to chose between 3 providers. Before the state made the final decisions and not some managed care company. (Well Sense etc) I worked with the program to get their program covered. I called back and forth every day to see what progress had been made. The issue was at first they didn’t have a therapist that was licensed in my state. I think that has something to do with the billing. I know the therapists had been working to be certified in other states but that is usually a process as each state requires different courses etc to be qualified in a state. Usually your individual therapist has to be from your state. The one they found for me wasn’t the greatest match. She was a good 2.5 hours drive one way and just of the old school. I could use Zoom for my visits but I actually would drive most the time to have some physical contact.
The individual therapist was the only real minus to their program. I felt all the therapists and dietician really cared about all their clients. I loved the convenience of being able to click on your computer and join the group. Since my state doesn’t have treatment options close by in state this meant I didn’t have to add an hour drive to treatment and another hour after to drive home. I could do treatment from the comfort of my house. Also I feel like there was less opportunity to be triggered by others in the group.
This program was doing Zoom virtual before everyone had to go to virtual during Covid. While other programs had to pivot Brightheart was already ahead. Their program was built on doing it virtually. I don’t think they were ever planning on expanding to traditional programs. Their groups ran on a 6 week cycle but even if you did the group a second time you could always get different things from it.
Overall I would do the program again if I needed it. I don’t think that therapist I had for individual is there anymore. I think it was because they tried to find someone to take me in my state but now I know some of the other therapists are certified in my state. I would also say the CEO was in on the process of trying to get me covered. I spoke to him sometimes during the process.
I know now they have added a substance abuse program and that seems to take up a lot more time. I’m not sure how good that program is but when I was in the ed one it was a good resource for me and I still attend some of their free support groups.
I will note this program isn’t for people that are too medically fragile. If you don’t think you will be able to follow the meal plan or need more support the program isn’t for you but the staff is usually good at figuring that out during the assessment.