How VIBEcare Is Making Behavioral Health Work in Primary Care
StartUp Health community member Indira Paharia, PsyD, is bringing virtual, integrated behavioral care into primary care practices, pairing evidence-based coaching with a purpose-built platform so more patients get timely, effective treatment where they already seek care.
The Challenge: Why Primary Care Needs Integrated Behavioral Health Now
Across the United States, and around the world, behavioral health needs have surged since 2020. Primary care has become the front line, with the majority of behavioral health issues identified and treated in these clinics. Yet most primary care providers do not have the training, time, or technology to deliver evidence-based psychological care at scale. The result is an overreliance on medications, an underuse of proven psychological treatments, worsening chronic medical conditions, higher total costs of care, and unnecessary human suffering.
“We are in very challenging times, and people feel a level of uncertainty, anxiety, and even depression that is unprecedented,” says Dr. Indira Paharia. “And usually, it presents itself in primary care because it’s a safe space with less stigma. Patients see their PCPs for almost all healthcare needs, so it’s only natural that they want to discuss their mental health problems as well. People need a way to get mental health treatment without having to deal with transportation, childcare, and other barriers. That’s why everything we do at VIBEcare is virtual.”
Origin Story: The Clinician-Operator Who Rebranded and Rebuilt for Scale
StartUp Health community member Indira Paharia, PsyD, CEO & Co-founder of VIBEcare, built her career at the intersection of psychology, medicine, and healthcare finance. A clinical psychologist by training, she specialized early in health psychology and integrated behavioral medicine in Denver, then added an MBA in healthcare administration and an MS in healthcare finance while teaching in academia. She went on to lead behavioral health at major payers, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Molina Healthcare, and Centene, where she served as COO and acting CEO of behavioral health for more than 16 million members.
That panoramic view revealed both the human stakes and the operational friction that keep patients from receiving the care they need. When longtime colleague and cofounder David Brody, MD, a creator of the PHQ-9 depression assessment, began building a company to bring collaborative behavioral care into primary care, Dr. Paharia joined first as a board member, then as a co-founder and CEO. She led a rebrand to VIBEcare, short for Virtual Integrated Behavioral Care, capturing a simple idea with big impact: meet patients where they already are, and make integrated behavioral health practical, measurable, and reimbursable for primary care.
“I’ve learned that everybody looks at healthcare problems from their own lens,” she explains. “Providers are experiencing burnout and time pressure, while payers must deliver shareholder value. But at the center of it all is human suffering. That’s why I became a psychologist. It’s ultimately what drives me – reducing human suffering, especially when we know that there are treatments that can help if we can just screen and get people access to care.”
Under the Hood: How VIBEcare Delivers Evidence-Based Care That Practices Can Actually Use
VIBEcare delivers an evidence-based, virtual behavioral health service designed specifically for primary care. The HIPAA-secure, cloud platform supports the collaborative care model with features for electronic referrals, interoperability with practice EHRs, registry-based measurement tracking, standardized clinical notes, automated reporting, and streamlined billing for collaborative care reimbursement codes paid by Medicare, most commercial insurers, and an expanding number of Medicaid programs.
What differentiates VIBEcare is how it operationalizes care. The team has enhanced the model with scripted, evidence-based coaching protocols from nationally recognized experts who serve as co-founders and advisors. Multilingual board-certified health coaches deliver structured modular programs, supervised by licensed clinicians, and focused on conditions most commonly seen in primary care, including depression, anxiety, and substance misuse. After each session, patients receive a personalized action plan, and primary care providers receive concise progress updates. Regular consultation with psychiatric providers ensures clinical oversight, while routine measurement with tools like the PHQ-9 keeps care accountable to outcomes.
“One of the takeaways about VIBEcare is that there are other companies doing some similar things,” says Dr. Paharia. “But we are clinicians, we’re technologists, and we’re entrepreneurs. We built these solutions around the primary care providers and patients because we are primary care providers and psychologists ourselves. We understand the front line.”
VIBEcare offers two pathways. A turnkey clinical service, billed through collaborative care codes, can be deployed at no cost to the practice, and removes barriers like space, staffing, and separate billing. For practices with in-house behavioral health teams, the platform is available as a SaaS solution. Either way, the model is built to scale, addresses the national provider shortage, and removes access barriers such as transportation, childcare, and stigma through a fully virtual experience.
What’s Next: Policy Tailwinds, Product Roadmap, and Partnerships
The policy environment is improving. As of July 2025, Colorado became the 36th state to reimburse collaborative care codes under Medicaid, a meaningful milestone for this Colorado-based team and the vulnerable patients their primary care partners serve. With an MVP in market, VIBEcare is expanding partnerships with internal and family medicine practices first, then extending to pediatrics, OB/GYN, and geriatrics. Near-term product priorities include a patient app to deepen engagement, additional content tailored for youth, women, and older adults, and programs that support behavioral management of chronic medical illness with attention to health literacy and cultural diversity.
“I’m really optimistic,” says Dr. Paharia. “More and more commercial and Medicaid plans are reimbursing these codes. They know this is needed. And with the national behavioral health provider shortage, a solution like ours that uses board-certified health coaches supervised by clinicians makes care both scalable and cost-effective.”
As a member of the StartUp Health community, Dr. Paharia brings a rare blend of clinical expertise, payer leadership, and entrepreneurial drive. Her perspective helps bridge conversations between providers, payers, and innovators, and her work at VIBEcare reflects the kind of scalable, evidence-based innovation that StartUp Health was built to champion. By connecting with fellow Health Transformers, industry leaders, and potential partners, she is accelerating her mission to make effective behavioral health accessible to every patient who needs it – starting right where care is most often sought: primary care.
Connect with VIBEcare via email
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Published: Oct 16, 2025
By Nicole Kinsey
