Rewiring Mental Health Care: How InherisAI Is Using AI and Philanthropy to Expand Access

Written by: Sami-Jo Roth

In a recent episode of Health Futures: Taking Stock in You, host Bob Roth sat down with Alyssa Crockett, Miles Kramer, and Ron Van Horssen of InherisAI for a conversation about one of the most urgent challenges in healthcare today: access to mental health care, and a bold new model aiming to fix it.

🎧 For the full episode, CLICK HERE
Audacy | Apple | Spotify

A Broken System, and a New Approach

For Van Horssen, the idea behind InherisAI started with a deeply personal experience.

After watching a loved one struggle to find appropriate care for a child facing serious emotional trauma, he came face to face with a system that simply wasn’t working.

“I watched just how hard it was… to find the right therapist to deal with such a crushing problem,” he said.

That experience led to a broader realization: the behavioral health system isn’t lacking compassion or ideas, it’s lacking funding and access.

“There’s not enough money going in,” Van Horssen explained. “Government’s not going to fix the problem… and insurance companies struggle with covering behavioral health care.”

The Funding Gap No One Talks About

For Kramer, a licensed clinical social worker who has spent his career in both public and private behavioral health systems, that gap is all too familiar.

“There’s not a shortage of great ideas or really compassionate people,” he said. “But there’s a fits and starts of funding.”

Programs launch, show promise, and then disappear when funding dries up. Meanwhile, demand continues to grow.

Even more striking: many providers are leaving insurance networks altogether.

“We see 35% of behavioral health providers in the country today are cash-only providers,” Kramer noted.

The result? Even people with insurance often can’t access care.

“Coverage isn’t access,” he said.

Why AI Isn’t Replacing Therapists, It’s Powering Access

Despite the company’s name, InherisAI isn’t trying to replace therapists with technology.

In fact, it’s doing the opposite.

“We’re doing nothing even remotely close to that,” Kramer said. “We’re helping people get access to human care of their choice.”

Instead, AI is used behind the scenes to solve a different problem: speed and scale.

Traditional philanthropy, while generous, is often slow and inefficient. InherisAI uses AI to process requests, match funding, and move money quickly, something that would otherwise require thousands of people.

“The part of the work that AI will do is really the part that only AI could do, and that is speed,” Kramer said.

A New Model: “Pure Philanthropy”

At the center of the model is something the team calls “pure philanthropy.”

Every dollar donated goes directly to funding care, no overhead taken out.

“That was a requirement for me,” Van Horssen said.

Patients who qualify receive funds directly, often through a digital payment system, allowing them to choose their own provider—whether in-network, out-of-network, or cash-pay.

It’s a major shift from traditional systems that limit choice.

“We believe people can make the best decision about what kind of care they need,” Van Horssen said.

Rebuilding Human Connection in Care

While technology powers the system, the mission is deeply human.

Roth emphasized the importance of preserving connection in a world increasingly driven by automation.

“We’re humans. We need to be relational,” he said. “We need somebody that really knows us.”

That philosophy resonated strongly with Crockett, whose background in healthcare philanthropy helped her immediately see the potential.

“This represents a total transformation in philanthropy,” she said. “How donors experience giving, and how impact is experienced by the people receiving it.”

Breaking Down Barriers—and Stigma

Beyond cost and access, stigma remains one of the biggest barriers in mental health care.

As Kramer pointed out, the numbers are staggering:

“About 60% of people with a diagnosed condition never get any care… and that number rises to 70% among seniors.”

InherisAI aims to lower that barrier by making the process simple, fast, and private—without requiring deep disclosure of personal health details.

“If you’re climbing over the stigma to say ‘I need help,’ that’s already a big step,” Kramer said.

A Model That Could Go Beyond Mental Health

While the focus today is behavioral health, the long-term vision is even broader.

From cancer care to rare diseases, the gap between need and affordability continues to grow.

“We think this is really going to transform philanthropy,” Van Horssen said.

A Conversation Worth Having

What makes this conversation stand out is its clarity.

The problem isn’t new. The need isn’t unclear.

But the approach, combining AI, philanthropy, and patient choice, offers a new way forward.

Because for millions of people, the barrier to care isn’t willingness.

It’s access.

And as this episode makes clear, solving that gap could change everything.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Health Futures: Taking Stock in You to hear more from the InherisAI team on how they’re rethinking mental health care access.

📌 Learn more about Health Futures: Taking Stock in You
📌 Learn more about Cypress HomeCare Solutions

📝 This content is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice.