Cerebral Vs Brightside: Which is Better For Mental Health?

Given terrific technological advancement in mental healthcare in recent years, getting the right professional care is now easier. Thanks to platforms like Brightside, BetterHelp, Cerebral, and more.

In this article, I will be sharing my experience with Cerebral and Brightside to help you choose the right one.

How Does Cerebral Stack Up Against Brightside?

This section covers the detailed comparison between Cerebral and Brightside.

1. How Does It Work?

Cerebral

To get started, I was prompted for a mental health assessment. I was then assigned a dedicated care team based on the results of the primary mental disorder evaluation test.

This is one of the best features of Cerebral, as Brightside does not offer separate care teams for individualized attention.

Who all are part of the care team?

The care team has a counselor and a certified psychiatrist. For medication management, I was also eligible to receive the services of a licensed mental therapist along with a psychiatrist practitioner.

I could be in constant touch with my care team via live phone calls, video calls, and text messages.

The treatment approaches, and plans are highly personalized, and I could even request modifications from my care team if required.

The process to change your therapists or care team is not automated, so I had to connect with the customer support executives to request a switch when I was not quite happy with my first care team. It is hassle-free as the support team is pretty responsive.

Brightside

Brightside specially caters to therapy and psychiatric assistance for anxiety and depression.

For starters, I was asked to take a short and easy test, after which I underwent a comprehensive mental health analysis.

Brightside helped me understand how severe my mental illness was based on my baseline depression and anxiety scores.

Additionally, there are many other supportive resources, such as the progress tracker, self-care guides, blogs, and more, to help you proactively monitor your treatment outcomes.

Brightside uses proven mental health tests such as the PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire) and GAD-7 for calculating your mental health score.

Cerebral does evaluate you comprehensively, but Brightside has a more systematic set of proven tools to detect varying levels of depression and anxiety.

There is a $20 no-show fine for missing pre-scheduled appointments.

2. Pricing/Affordability

Cerebral

Both Cerebral and Brightside are similarly priced. But the pricing is structured differently.

Cerebral has two primary membership or subscription plans: Therapy and medication management plus comprehensive diagnosis of mental disorders.

One additional advantage of Cerebral over Brightside is that your package cost includes the monthly medication cost.

There is no free trial, but I used the 50% discount on the first month, so it was a good deal for me at the end of the day.

Cerebral also has a referral program called Refer a Friend for highly discounted services with an offer of as good as 70%.

Mental health therapy only	Therapy and medication management
This plan is worth $295 USD per month. With a 50% discount, your monthly cost can come down to $145 USD for the first month	This plan is worth $365 USD per month, but With a 50% discount, your monthly cost can come down to $175 USD for the first month
Charges to be paid per month	Charges to be paid per month
Cerebral picks the right therapist for you based on your mental health requirements	Cerebral picks the right therapist for you and a medical prescriber for proper diagnosis/prescription
Weekly phone/video-based psychotherapy sessions	Weekly phone/video-based psychotherapy sessions plus expert medication management
Custom plans provided by your care team	Custom plans provided by your care team
No medical prescription services are included in this plan	Phone or video calls for subsequent review sessions later with your medical prescriber
Convenient scheduling of consultations, progress tracking, messaging, and mental wellness resources are available in the app	Convenient scheduling of consultations, progress tracking, messaging, and mental wellness resources are available in the app
FSA/HSA cards accepted for payment	FSA/HSA cards accepted for payment

Brightside

You need to have a minimum mental healthcare budget in the range of $95 USD to $349 USD. Brightside services are expensive compared to other telehealth portals. But the cost is very similar to Cerebral.

During the sign-up process, I was told to opt for the medication plus therapy plan worth $349 per month. Additionally, I had the option to choose from two more FDA-approved plans: the medication plan worth $95 USD per month and the Evidence-based therapy plan costing $299 USD per month.

Evidence-based therapy	FDA-approved medication	Medication plus therapy
Costs $299 USD per month	Costs $95 USD per month	Costs $349 USD per month
Includes 4 video sessions per month	Includes 1:1 video sessions and detailed video evaluation	Includes 4 video sessions, 1:1 video sessions, and detailed video evaluation
Unlimited messaging is available along with interactive lessons	A customized treatment plan for your mental health requirements with the option message when needed	All features of the Evidence-based therapy plan coupled with the FDA-approved medication plan

3. Insurance Coverage

Both platforms provide insurance coverage to bring down mental health treatment costs.

Cerebral

Here are the insurance companies that have a partnership with Cerebral:

• Anthem
• Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Blue Shield
• Cigna
• Magellan Health

Steps to check eligibility for insurance coverage:

• Take the eligibility test and verify if your insurance provider has a collaboration with Cerebral.
• Pay the $30 universal access fee which was not covered by my insurance (Honestly, I was not very happy to know of this hidden charge as it was not covered by my insurance plan.
• My final treatment cost was determined by my insurance plan, the deductible amount, and the subscription plan I chose.

All my prescriptions were billed separately, and I could easily use my insurance to pay for consultation sessions as well as prescription management services.

Please go ahead with the desired plan only after you have enough clarity on the benefits offered by your insurance provider to know how much you would be spending in general.

Brightside

Brightside accepts payments via credit card, HSA, FSA cards, and the following carriers.

• Cigna
• Anthem CA
• Aetna
• Allegiance
• Optum or United Healthcare – available in a limited number of states

To check if my insurance was eligible for Brightside services, I was required to mention the details of my insurance while signing up to verify my eligibility and the degree of service coverage.

Also, most of my costs were included in my insurance plan, but I had to pay my medication coinsurance, extra copays, and deductibles.

An out-of-pocket $15 fee is generally charged for medication if you do not have insurance.

4. Privacy

Cerebral

Cerebral’s reputation suffered after whistleblowers who previously worked with the platform went public with allegations that the providers illegally prescribed stimulants for temporary positive treatment outcomes.

Despite all its tall claims, the HIPAA-compliant platform has been in the news for its ambiguous privacy policy.

Brightside

Brightside Health fully adheres to HIPAA guidelines and places significant emphasis on protecting the privacy of its patients. The company does not share your personal data with third-party businesses. 

The security officers are specially hand-picked to ensure total privacy and protection of data. You can reach out to them if you want more clarity on the privacy policy. So, I give a 10 on 10 for this level of transparency on the platform. 

5. Accessibility

Cerebral

Cerebral is one of the most accessible and highly flexible providers, except for treatment addressing alcohol dependence which is only available in 36 states.

Apart from this, the platform’s website and the app perform pretty well for differently-abled customers on the usability front.

All the plans provided by Cerebral are available across all states in the US, including the state of Washington, D.C. If you have signed up for prescription-based medication service, your prescriber will have to be certified in the state you reside in.

Cerebral’s network of prescription providers is only licensed to issue or prescribe mental illness medicines in the United States.

Brightside

You can access Brightside Health services across all 50 states in the US. But be sure to enter your zip code and check if insurance coverage is offered in your state.

In my case, I did not have insurance coverage in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Also, the insurance coverage and final cost post-insurance coverage were dependent on my state of residence. To ensure coverage is valid, it is important for the platform to be operational in that state.

6. Available Treatments

Cerebral

Cerebral uses evidence-based approaches to treat the following mental disorders:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Insomnia
• ADHD
• Bipolar Disorder
• Alcohol Use Disorder
• Treatments also cover PTSD, Post-partum depression & menopausal depression

Cerebral also offers therapy for patients to cope with:

• Stress, anger, loss, and grief
• Trauma
• Relationship issues
• Phobias
• Low self-esteem
• LGBTQI+ issues

Brightside

Brightside is the right platform for mental health treatment if you fulfill the following conditions:

• You must be 18 years old or older
• You should be residing in the US
• You are experiencing Major depressive disorder
• You suffer from Premenstrual dysphoric disorder or Post-partum depression
• You have OCD, anxiety, panic disorders, or seasonal affective disorder
• You are struggling with Bipolar II, Phobias, or insomnia

Brightside is not the right platform for you if you are suffering from the following conditions:

• Personality disorder
• Substance abuse
• Schizophrenia
• Eating disorders
• Higher likelihood of inflicting self-harm and engaging in brutality
• Complex psychiatric problems requiring admission to hospitals and constant monitoring
• Liver and kidney problems
• Seizures
• ADHD

7. Pros and Cons of Cerebral

8. Pros and Cons of Brightside

Conclusion

Both platforms are equally effective. You can choose the one that offers more flexibility.

Cerebral is a better option for its extensive offerings worth the same price as Brightside. However, if privacy is your concern, you could opt for Brightside.