Spotlight on women’s health: Supporting women’s behavioral health care

A panel of women’s health experts chat about the behavioral health care needs of women — and the ways employers can offer support.


In a panel discussion, Stephanie Fehr, chief people officer for UnitedHealthcare, was joined by Dr. Lisa Saul, chief medical officer of women’s health for UnitedHealthcare, Alison Richards, chief executive officer for Surest® and Will Porteous, chief growth officer for Maven, for a thought-provoking conversation about women’s health. As the final article in this 4-part series, learn more about behavioral health challenges that women typically face and why supporting women’s health matters.

Women’s health panel discussion: Behavioral health

The story data paints on behavioral health

Check it out: Starting at the 01:12 mark, Craig Kurtzweil, chief data & analytics officer for UnitedHealthcare Employer & Individual, gives a deep dive into data on behavioral health.

When digging into UnitedHealthcare book of business data, it’s clear there are some distinctive disparities between men and women and the behavioral health issues they experience, according to Kurtzweil.

Women, for instance, experience a 66% higher prevalence of receiving any type of behavioral health diagnosis.1 They also receive anxiety and depression diagnoses twice as much as their male counterparts, and they are diagnosed with an eating disorder more than 6x as much.1

“I stress the term, ‘diagnosis,’ because we know that there are many more in the population, especially on the male side, that have these issues but are not seeking treatment,” he says. “In the female population, we definitely see a lot less stigma associated with it.”

Since the pandemic, adolescent girls, ages 13 to 17, have also experienced 2.6x higher levels of anxiety when compared with adolescent boys, and they’re 9x more likely to be diagnosed with an eating disorder.1

The panelists share thoughts on the state of women’s behavioral health

Check it out: Starting at the 3:54 mark, the panelists offer strategies that can help overcome the challenges related to women’s behavioral health.

The panelists offer 3 ways employers and the wider health care system can better support women’s behavioral health:

  1. Removing barriers to care. Key to addressing behavioral health concerns among women is the ability to avoid any barriers that may be preventing them from seeking care. Eliminating those barriers can look like a superior digital experience or Advocacy services that give women the tools and information they need to seek out behavioral health care and understand how much they’re going to be charged for it, according to Richards.

    That’s where the Surest plan is finding traction: 23% of women accessed behavioral care on the Surest plan versus 19% for traditional health plans.2 Women also tended to pay less for their behavioral health care, experiencing 82% lower out-of-pocket costs for depression treatment and 88% lower costs for anxiety treatment than with other plans.2
  2. Caring for the caregiver. Women are often not only experiencing their own health journey, many times they’re also caring for children or parents — or both children and parents — as well, Saul says. Solutions like Cleo, which match women with a guide to help them navigate their unique challenges and situations, are helping women put on their oxygen masks, so they can care for others, Saul says.
  3. Promoting access. Solutions like Maven, a platform with 35 specialties including the most utilized — behavioral health — promote behavioral access. This helps ensure that members have unlimited access to its providers, Porteous says, whether they’re seeking support for anxiety about going through IVF or depression through a postpartum period, among other issues.

Get more on women’s health

Learn more about the ways employers and the wider health care system can offer women their support, when it comes to:

Part 1: Gender and ethnicity

Part 2: Maternity and family planning

Part 3: Menopause

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