Building Trust Through Responsible, Measurement-Based Care at Scale

What is Measurement-Based Care?

Broadly defined, measurement-based care (MBC) means regularly checking in via assessments on how a client is feeling and progressing during treatment to help guide care decisions and next steps. Using MBC is a best practice in mental healthcare because it has a significant positive impact on client outcomes and clinical care. Findings indicate that use of MBC in therapy improves symptom reduction across all case types and reduces dropout rates by 20%. 

BetterHelp’s approach to MBC is designed for consistent, scalable practice across a large national provider network. This approach reflects our mission to champion the well-being of everyone we serve and partner with, including members, providers, and health plan partners. MBC is embedded directly into clinical care delivery, enabling therapists and members to use real-time client data to support engagement, clinical decision-making, efficiency, and effectiveness. Clients report an average live session rating of 4.9 out of 5 across more than 1.7 million sessions, reflecting the high-quality experience that MBC helps support.

To ensure consistent, measurable symptom tracking over time while supporting therapists with integrated clinical tools, BetterHelp automatically administers validated core outcome measures for anxiety and depression, the PHQ-9 and GAD-7, to all members on a regular schedule throughout treatment. This approach is associated with measurable clinical improvement, with 69% of clients experiencing reliable improvement within 12 weeks. Rather than relying on one-time assessments or clinician judgment alone, routine measurement and systematic data collection create a longitudinal view of progress that can reveal early signs of improvement, stagnation, deterioration, or risk. Our shared, data-informed approach supports better experiences for members, more effective care delivery for clinicians, and greater transparency and confidence for health plan partners.

Consistent Symptom Tracking for Improved Outcomes

Critically, MBC is not solely a passive, automated task. Both members and therapists can view results directly within the platform, with graphical visualizations of progress over time. This shared visibility supports collaborative care conversations, helping align client experience with clinical interpretation and reinforcing engagement. In fact, 82% of clients in treatment reported they were likely to recommend their therapist to others, highlighting the positive impact of collaborative, transparent care. MBC enhances client engagement by encouraging clients to provide regular feedback via validated survey measures, which can provide more specific, objective data regarding progress and support better client outcomes. Beyond core symptom monitoring, BetterHelp empowers therapists to use a broad set of additional evidence-based measures when clinically appropriate. These include tools to assess stress, trauma, substance use, quality of life, perinatal mental health, and safety. This flexibility allows therapists to tailor measurement to client needs rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all battery. MBC can streamline the assessment process, aid clinicians in making differential diagnoses, and support tracking symptom improvement, psychotherapy outcomes, and treatment effects.

Enhancing Engagement Through Shared Insights

To support use of these tools with fidelity in mind, BetterHelp has also invested in therapist training focused on effective MBC utilization within the platform. These offerings, including live training and Continuous Education offerings, emphasize intentional measurement frequency, consistent discussion of results, and use of data to inform treatment planning and course correction. The goal is not measurement for its own sake, but actionable insight—alerting therapists when care is not working as expected and prompting timely adjustments before disengagement or dropout occurs. Our technology supports MBC by enabling digital delivery of questionnaires, centralizing data, and analyzing scores to support integration of data into appropriate treatment planning. 

The “Collect, Share, Act” model emphasizes collecting data from clients, sharing insights, and acting collaboratively based on the data. These improvements scale across the system which, for health plan partners, enables quality improvement to drive efficiency at scale. By standardizing routine measurement, supporting collaborative review of results, and equipping therapists with both tools and training, BetterHelp aims to deliver effective, evidence-based care. Measurement-based care on the platform functions as an early-warning and optimization system—helping members stay engaged, therapists intervene sooner, and networks deliver higher value care at scale.

MBC is a core component of evidence-based practice and can be integrated into various therapeutic approaches without requiring a change in theoretical orientation, making it compatible with different approaches to clinical care. 

Clinical Utility and Client Reported Data

Measurement-based care (MBC) is a key part of modern behavioral health care that gives members a clear, structured way to track their mental health progress. This clinical process uses information that members provide directly to help their therapist make better treatment decisions and see how they're doing over time. When a provider uses standardized tools like the client health questionnaire (PHQ-9) during regular sessions, they can systematically review the member’s depression symptoms and monitor how well treatment is working, making sure care stays responsive to the member’s changing needs.

The real value of MBC comes from its ability to give providers useful insights through regular check-ins. This approach helps clinicians spot small changes in symptoms, catch early signs that treatment is working or might need adjustments, and make timely changes to treatment plans. 

MBC has been recognized as an essential component of the American Psychological Association’s definition of evidence-based psychological practice in healthcare, and has been found valuable across countries and populations. When a clinician consistently collects information directly from members, they get a much better understanding of what members are experiencing, which improves their decision making and helps them provide more personalized care.

Technology has made it much easier to use MBC on a large scale, allowing for regular use of standardized tools and real-time analysis of your outcome data. Digital platforms make collaborative care possible by helping providers see progress, supporting shared decision making and strengthening the relationship between members and therapists. 

References

Bakker, D., Kazantzis, N., Rickwood, D., & Rickard, N. (2021). Mental health smartphone apps: Review and evidence-based recommendations for future developments. Clinical Psychology Review, 83, 101943. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735821000453

BetterHelp. (2024). BetterHelp platform quality and outcomes in 2024 [White paper]. https://assets.betterhelp.com/pdf/White_Paper_-_BetterHelp_platform_quality_&_outcomes_in_2024.pdf

BetterHelp. (n.d.). BetterHelp platform quality and outcomes: What the data show. https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/general/betterhelp-platform-quality-and-outcomes-in/ 

American Psychological Association. (2019). Guidelines for the practice of measurement-based care in psychotherapy. https://www.apa.org/about/policy/guidelines-measurement-based-care.pdf

Liu, X., He, H., Smith, C., & Yang, Q. (2026). Implementing measurement-based care in digital mental health platforms: Outcomes and engagement metrics. JMIR Mental Health, 13(1), e63088. https://mental.jmir.org/2026/1/e63088#app1