5 Trends Shaping the Future of Healthcare

The 2025 Behavioral Health Tech Conference brought together leaders from across the behavioral health community including health plans, employers, providers, innovators, advocates and individuals with lived experience. What stood out most was how consistently the conversation returned to one central truth: technology is essential for scale, but humanity is essential for healing.

Across three days, discussions spanned serious mental illness (SMI), substance use disorders (SUD), workforce shortages, AI innovation and the challenge of building solutions that truly improve outcomes. What made these conversations especially impactful was the authenticity of the community itself. Speakers and attendees shared their “whys,” telling personal stories and grounding the dialogue in hope, connection and recovery.

A standout moment was seeing several NovaOne leaders on stage helping shape the conversation. Joe Burton delivered a keynote alongside Chris Thompson and Jodie Sweetin, while Rachel Goldberg and Adam Weliver contributed to important panel discussions and fireside chats. Their presence reflected NovaOne’s growing impact and our commitment to advancing compassionate, integrated behavioral healthcare.

Below are the five most important trends that emerged along with what they signal for health plans, employers and the future of behavioral healthcare delivery.

1. The Workforce Crisis Remains the Defining Constraint
Nearly every session underscored the urgency of the behavioral health workforce shortage. High-acuity conditions including SMI and SUD require relational and highly specialized care. Yet plans and employers struggle to maintain adequate networks and members often wait weeks or months for specialty appointments.

Technology can streamline workflows, reduce administrative burden and identify needs earlier, but it cannot replace the therapeutic alliance that drives recovery. Instead, digital tools must augment and enhance clinicians’ work, not attempt to replicate it. The consistent takeaway: hybrid models that combine digital supports with human expertise are now the dominant and most credible approach.

2. High-Acuity Pathways Require Community, Not Just Content
A second theme centered on the limitations of standalone digital tools for high-acuity needs. SMI and SUD cannot be addressed through apps alone. People heal in community through trust, continuity and evidence-based clinical support.

Platforms that integrate peer support, specialty providers and structured pathways are gaining traction. Several conference speakers shared deeply personal stories that reinforced how connection and hope remain central to member outcomes.

3. Measurement, Outcomes and Claims-Linked ROI Are Non-Negotiable
ROI must be real, measurable and tied to total cost of care. Vanity metrics such as downloads, login counts or content views are no longer sufficient. Leaders emphasized the need for integrated measurement-based care, consistent clinical workflows and visibility across the full member journey. Providers want clarity on which measures to use and how to embed them operationally. Plans want transparent reporting, actionable insights and a credible link between engagement and reduced downstream costs.

This shift signals a maturing market and one that rewards platforms able to demonstrate verified impact.

4. Point Solution Fatigue Has Reached a Breaking Point
A clear and repeated message emerged: fragmentation is undermining care. Health plans and employers described managing 10+ behavioral health vendors, each with separate contracts, data feeds, compliance requirements and engagement challenges.

Many leaders acknowledged that point solution oversight often happens “off the side of someone’s desk” without consistent vetting of clinical efficacy or cost impact. As one speaker noted, “If we add vendors without removing others, we are not solving problems, we are multiplying them.”

Organizations are now asking harder questions:

• Do we really need this point solution?
• What value is it delivering?
• Is it driving measurable ROI or simply adding administrative work?

• An integrated digital front door with 25+ preventive solutions in one cohesive experience.
• A high-acuity clinical network of 25+ specialty providers focused on SMI and SUD.
• Prevention and recovery pathways grounded in evidence-based methods and real-world outcomes.
• Unified measurement and ROI reporting to demonstrate impact.
• A platform designed to meet the needs of health plans, employers and the more than 14 million members we serve.