Confidential therapy for the physicians in a PE-backed group, above the EAP.
A platform's value rests on the physicians who see the patients, and they are carrying production targets, consolidation, and administrative load that a standard employee assistance program was never built to hold. CEREVITY gives a sponsor a confidential, private-pay clinical benefit for those physicians, matched by hand and delivered so that nothing routes through the group health plan.
What CEREVITY is.
A nationwide network of independent licensed clinicians, offered as a confidential benefit for a group's physicians.
CEREVITY is a nationwide network of independent licensed clinicians providing private-pay therapy by secure telehealth across all 50 states. It is not an app, not a coaching marketplace, and not an employee assistance program. Each physician is matched by hand to a clinician who understands high-responsibility clinical work, and keeps that clinician over time.
For the sponsor, the model is simple to reason about. Care is private-pay with no insurance claim filed, so nothing routes through the group health plan and no claim record is created. The benefit sits above any existing EAP rather than replacing it, aimed at the physicians whose retention most directly protects the platform's value.
CEREVITY runs the same structure for other clinical groups, from hospital systems and medical staff offices to specialty settings such as aesthetic and cosmetic practices. The PE-backed version is aimed at the physicians a rollup cannot afford to lose.Why a PE-backed group is different.
The pressure on a physician inside a sponsor-owned platform is not the same pressure, and the standard benefit was not built for it.
Physicians in a PE-backed group do everything a strong independent physician does, now measured against production targets, integration timelines, and a value-creation plan they did not write. The clinical load is unchanged; the context around it is heavier. Independent reporting finds that physicians burn out at markedly higher rates than other workers, and consolidation tends to sharpen rather than soften that.
The strain is not only the clinicians'. The sponsor side carries its own version, documented in our Private Equity Leadership Strain Report, and the two compound each other across a hold period.
of physicians reported at least one symptom of burnout in 2025, still roughly two in five of the workforce a group depends on. Source: American Medical Association Organizational Biopsy, 2025 (41.9%).
When a producing physician's judgment or engagement quietly degrades, the platform absorbs it long before it appears in a resignation. The hidden cost of an untreated leader has a clinical parallel: a physician running on empty is a slower, more error-prone, and less retainable asset well before anyone names why.
A generic EAP, designed for high-volume short-term employee support, is structurally mismatched to this population. Physicians rarely use it, both because the format does not fit the problem and because they will not route something this sensitive through a channel their employer administers. Our note on confidential support for busy physicians sets out what actually reaches them. The need goes unmet quietly, which is the most expensive way for it to go unmet.
What physicians actually bring to the work.
The presenting issues behind the productivity numbers, in the language of the clinic.
More than exhaustion
Burnout is not only tiredness; it is depersonalization and a loss of meaning that no amount of time off resolves on its own. The distinction matters, as our note on why physician burnout is more than exhaustion explains.
Last to ask for help
The training that produces a reliable physician also produces one who will not admit to struggling. That reluctance is measurable, and it is part of why physicians are the worst at asking for help.
Fear of the board
Worry that seeking care could surface in licensing or credentialing keeps many physicians from ever starting. The reality is narrower than the fear, as our note on therapy and board scrutiny explains.
Under review
A complaint or an investigation can shadow a physician long after it resolves. Preparing for and recovering from that scrutiny is its own work, the subject of what physicians should know about board reviews.
The adverse event
An unexpected outcome or harm to a patient leaves a mark that production targets ignore. The pattern has a name, described in second victim syndrome in healthcare.
The weight of the role
Carrying responsibility for outcomes, day after day, in a system that keeps asking for more, exacts a toll physicians are expected to absorb silently, close to moral injury in clinical work.
Fine on the surface
Many physicians keep performing while quietly unwell, which is exactly what makes it dangerous. This is the territory of high-functioning depression in physicians.
It follows them home
The hours and the mental load do not stop at the clinic door. Marriages and families carry the overflow, the subject of our writing on physician marriage challenges.
The model values the physician by throughput. Nothing on the dashboard measures what the physician is carrying to hit it.
Session formats built for clinical calendars.
Three lengths, no rigid weekly slot.
The steady cadence of ongoing therapy. Most clients spend most of their care in 50-minute sessions.
For work that needs more room than a standard hour can hold. See 90-minute sessions.
For work that needs uninterrupted time to reach resolution. See 3-hour therapy intensives.
Care is delivered in 50-minute, 90-minute, and 3-hour sessions by secure telehealth, nationwide, with clinicians who understand the toll of irregular and shifting schedules. A physician can do focused work in a single 90-minute or 3-hour block on an admin day rather than forcing a standing weekly appointment that a full panel will break. Modality is matched at intake rather than assigned, and the physician keeps the same clinician throughout. When the situation is urgent, same-week access is the norm rather than the exception.
Keep the physicians the platform depends on.
A confidential conversation about a clinician-tier benefit takes one call. Nothing about it touches the group health plan.
Start a partnership conversationHow a physician is matched.
Every physician is matched by hand, not by an algorithm running against an intake form. Matching is reviewed by CEREVITY's clinical leadership, with the physician's specialty, schedule, and preferences weighed before any introduction is made.
The eligible individual submits a confidential intake form covering presenting issues, modality preference, professional context, and scheduling parameters. Operated by CEREVITY directly, not by a broker.
Intake is reviewed by CEREVITY's clinical leadership against the network's active capacity, current licensure footprint, and modality availability. This is the step that does not exist in an EAP. You can review the clinicians in the network directly.
A specific clinician is matched to the physician, who receives the match with the clinician's profile, modality, and credentials, plus a direct online scheduling link. If you are doing this for someone else, see how to find a therapist for your CEO.
Scheduling runs directly through CEREVITY infrastructure with no phone handoff. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of the match.
Care continues on the cadence the clinical work requires, in 50-minute, 90-minute, or 3-hour sessions, without an employer-imposed session cap.
Capability comparison for PE-backed physician groups.
An evaluation framework on the dimensions that matter when scoping a clinician-tier benefit. All three models have a place; they are built for different populations.
| Dimension | Typical EAP | Executive-tier platform | CEREVITY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network model | Broker layer between employer and contractor roster | Single-vendor platform, W-2 or contracted pool | Independent clinical network with direct relationships |
| Clinician assignment | First contractor to reply with availability | Algorithmic matching on intake-form inputs | Clinical review by network leadership |
| Intake and scheduling | Phone handoff to the clinician's line | App-based intake and scheduling | Network-operated intake, direct online scheduling |
| Session formats | Standard 50-minute, capped session counts | Standard 45 to 50-minute sessions | 50-minute, 90-minute, and 3-hour formats, no cap |
| Clinical scope | Acute, broadly applicable concerns | Workforce-wide, executive tier as an upsell | Built around the presenting issues of physicians |
| Modality fit | Generalist talk therapy | Generalist therapy with some specialty | CBT, DBT, psychodynamic, IFS, matched at intake |
| Reach | National via roster density | National telehealth, roster variance | All 50 states via telehealth |
| Payment model | Employer-sponsored, in network | Per-employee-per-month seat pricing | Private pay, out of network, partnership agreement |
| Sponsor visibility | Aggregate, broker-mediated | Vendor dashboards with engagement metrics | Administrative reporting only |
| Right fit for | Workforce-wide acute support | Mid-tier ongoing care with an executive add-on | PE-backed physician groups, end to end |
If you are running a formal evaluation, our notes on what to look for in a private therapy provider cover the procurement side in detail.
What the sponsor sees, and what it does not.
For a clinician-tier channel to work, the physician has to trust that using it creates no visibility into their care, and no exposure to licensing or credentialing. CEREVITY is built around that requirement.
- Confirmation that contracted services were provided to eligible individuals.
- Aggregate utilization at the partnership level, where contractually appropriate.
- Invoicing and eligibility reconciliation.
- Nothing tied to a specific named physician's clinical content.
- Whether a specific named physician has scheduled, attended, or engaged.
- What clinical issues are being addressed, or which clinician is assigned.
- Session notes, treatment plans, or diagnostic information.
- Any attendance detail at the individual level.
Clinicians are independent licensed professionals operating under their own licensure and the confidentiality and privacy obligations that attach to it. Protected health information is held within the clinical infrastructure, and the agreements governing it are defined in writing before the partnership goes live. Our notice of privacy practices and privacy policy are published in full.
Clinical records, session content, and individual engagement data sit inside the clinical platform. The administrative layer the partner interacts with is structurally separate from the clinical layer. Further context on why this matters to this population: private-pay therapy and confidentiality.
Eligibility lists are maintained on the partner side and confirmed at the point of intake. Administering eligibility does not require the partner to receive clinical information back.
A Business Associate Agreement is executed where the partnership structure requires it, and whether one applies is a determination made with counsel rather than assumed. The partnership agreement defines the administrative reporting scope in writing before anything goes live. See also our terms of service.
Physicians in particular ask about downstream exposure before they will engage at all. The question that comes up most is whether therapy shows up on a background check, and it is answered directly on our site.
What the first 30 days look like.
The hardest part of a clinician-tier partnership is not the contract. It is the period between signature and the first physician in care.
A 60-minute kickoff with your team and CEREVITY's partnership lead. We confirm the partnership shape, the eligibility model, the administrative reporting scope, and the internal owner. The BAA, where applicable, is executed.
Your team provides the eligible-individual list. CEREVITY confirms it against the network and establishes the verification path at intake. Only eligibility confirmation flows forward.
CEREVITY provides a confidential, clinician-tier comms template explaining the benefit, the privacy posture, and how to access intake. It is written to be received without stigma, which matters given why discretion is the deciding factor for CEOs in the first place.
Eligible individuals begin intake on their own cadence. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days. By day 30 the partnership is operational and a quarterly review cadence is in place.
The business case for the sponsor.
Physician retention, sustained productivity, and recruiting are the levers, and they are the levers a platform's value creation already runs on.
Retention of physicians
Physician turnover is one of the most expensive events in a medical platform, disrupting patients, referral relationships, and the integration plan at once. Confidential clinical care reaches the physicians least likely to ask, and it is a concrete part of retaining high-value people.
Sustained productivity
Focus, steadiness, and clinical judgment degrade under chronic, unmanaged stress, and burnout's impact on productivity is measurable well before a physician steps back. Care that addresses the underlying pattern keeps the panel and the schedule running at the level the plan assumes.
Recruiting and retention signal
Offering a clinician-tier mental health benefit signals that the platform treats its physicians as long-term professionals rather than RVU units, which is why some sponsors pair it with formal therapist referral programs.
Questions sponsors and group leaders ask first.
Does this replace our portfolio group's existing EAP?
No. CEREVITY sits above the EAP as a clinician-tier benefit. The EAP continues to serve the broader staff at high volume, while CEREVITY provides confidential, matched clinical care for the physicians whose retention most affects the platform. The benefit is deliberately narrow so it stays clinician-tier rather than becoming a second EAP.
How is confidentiality protected for our physicians?
Care is private pay, so no insurance claim is filed and nothing routes through the group health plan. There is no claim record for a benefits administrator, an insurer, or the sponsor to access. Sessions remain between the physician and the licensed clinician, who is bound by their own licensure confidentiality obligations. The sponsor sees only that the benefit exists and is used, never who used it or why.
Which physicians are typically covered?
Scope is defined in the partnership agreement. Most sponsors start with the physicians across the platform's practices, and some extend it to surgical specialists, covered by clinicians experienced in surgical mental health, and to group leadership. The scope stays clinician-focused so it does not blur into a general EAP.
Is this the same as the counseling in our EAP?
No. EAP counseling is typically short-term and generic. CEREVITY is ongoing, matched clinical care with a clinician who understands the professional context, which matters because standard formats often miss this population, a pattern documented in our note that most physicians say standard therapy failed them.
How quickly can a physician be matched?
Once the partnership is in place, an individual physician is matched by hand to an appropriate clinician, typically on a same-week basis depending on licensure footprint and modality fit. First sessions are usually scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of the match. Matching is reviewed by CEREVITY's clinical leadership rather than assigned algorithmically.
Does CEREVITY cover physicians across multiple states and platforms?
Yes. Care is delivered by secure telehealth nationwide across all 50 states, so a single partnership can support physicians wherever the platform operates, without anyone needing to be in a particular location.
What does it cost the sponsor?
Structure is agreed in the partnership conversation and depends on the number of physicians covered and the scope of access. CEREVITY is a private-pay network with transparent fees, so there are no insurance-driven surprises in the accounting. Standard individual rates are published on our pricing page.
How do we begin?
Start a partnership conversation using the form on this page, by phone at (562) 295-6650, or through the contact page. A member of CEREVITY's clinical leadership will follow up directly and confidentially to scope a benefit that fits the platform.
Start a partnership conversation.
Tell us about the platform and the physicians you want to cover. A member of CEREVITY's clinical leadership will follow up directly and confidentially.
Further reading and related partnerships.
Research, clinical writing, and the other clinical groups CEREVITY supports.
Research and data
For sponsors and management
Clinical writing
A note on sources.
The figure that roughly 42 percent of physicians reported at least one symptom of burnout in 2025 is drawn from the American Medical Association, reporting exclusive data from its Organizational Biopsy based on nearly 19,000 physician responses across 38 states. The structural argument on this page is based on the firsthand experience of CEREVITY clinicians who have served on EAP panels, combined with publicly available vendor materials. Specific contractual scopes, including any Business Associate Agreement, are confirmed in writing in the partnership agreement before a partnership goes live. Additional CEREVITY research is collected in the knowledge base.
