For commercial health plans
AI behavioral care for GI, built for commercial health plans.
Help members with IBS and functional GI manage the symptoms that drive avoidable utilization. Built for VBC, specialty-cost and medical-economics teams.
- 300,000+ people supported
- 20,000+ referring clinicians
- RCT published in the AJG1
GI costs are rising, for both you and your members.
Most GI disorders are functional: scopes come back clear because the symptoms come from the gut-brain connection, which standard GI care is not built to treat.
National GI spend
$119.6B
in annual US costs for GI, liver and pancreatic disease.12
- reason adults visit the ED: stomach and abdominal pain.15
- #1
- of adults worldwide meet criteria for a disorder of gut-brain interaction.13
- >40%
Stays with existing GI care
Diagnosis, medication and procedures. IBD flares, bleeds, cancers.
Nerva
AI behavioral care for the functional-GI population, delivered as software, at scale. Complements existing care.
- IBS
- Functional dyspepsia
- Reflux hypersensitivity
Escalates when needed
Clinician-led multidisciplinary teams. Refractory DGBI, complex comorbidity.
Clinician-staffed GI clinics do valuable work in the complex tier, and their reach scales with clinician supply. Software economics are what make the whole addressable cohort reachable.
The functional GI care program
Nerva is a structured six-week program, validated in populations with IBS,3 functional dyspepsia5 and more.6
One 15-minute guided brain-gut session a day for six weeks, plus short CBT-based lessons.
General diet and lifestyle guidance, including support for reintroducing foods.
Members check in on validated measures: IBS-SSS, abdominal pain and PHQ-4. Reports reach your team through privacy-compliant reporting.
Our care team screens at intake, reaches out to members who go quiet, and escalates warning signs to a provider.
“Within the evidence reviewed, Nerva presented the strongest overall evidence for improving IBS symptoms.”
Peterson Health Technology InstituteVirtual Gastrointestinal Care Solutions, March 20262
Effect sizes from a randomized controlled trial.
81%1of participants met the primary symptom endpoint (≥50-point IBS-SSS improvement), vs 63% on active control.
Randomized controlled trial · N=244 · active control · AJG 2025 Read the research →
- Clinically significant abdominal-pain reduction, vs 35% on control1
- 71%
- Clinical studies on Nerva, indexed on our Research page
- 15+
Research and clinical collaborations
Pay for outcomes.
Pricing follows pre-agreed improvements on validated symptom measures rather than activity. The program is software, so payment can stay per-enrolled with outcomes at risk instead of per-session. Clinical escalation stays human.
Terms tied to member outcomes.
Pre-agreed thresholds on RCT-validated symptom endpoints.
Privacy-compliant symptom reporting; both sides see the same scoreboard.
Measured on your claims, not ours.
Proposed design · agreed per contract
- Claims-based identification, with clinician clearance before enrollment
- Validated symptom instruments, reported on the cadence your team sets
- Pre/post evaluation on your claims, comparison agreed at contract
- Data handling under SOC 2 standards, documentation for procurement review
The full measurement design, identification logic and evaluation cadence come with the plan analysis.
Start with your claims, and an analysis you can hand to actuarial.
References
- Anderson, Ellen J.; Peters, Simone L.; Gibson, Peter R.; Halmos, Emma P. Comparison of Digitally Delivered Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy Program With an Active Control for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The American Journal of Gastroenterology 120(2):p 440-448, February 2025. DOI: 10.14309/ajg.0000000000002921
- Peterson Health Technology Institute. Virtual Gastrointestinal Care Solutions Assessment. March 2026. PHTI separately estimated $1,889 in net annual healthcare savings per IBS patient for virtual GI care, in a commercial population.
- Lacy, B. E. et al. ACG Clinical Guideline: Management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The American Journal of Gastroenterology, 2021.
- British Society of Gastroenterology guidelines on the management of functional dyspepsia. Gut, 2022.
- AGA Clinical Practice Update on functional heartburn and reflux hypersensitivity. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
- Combined membership of the health plans and employers Nerva holds contracts with, in the US and Australia. A measure of partner reach rather than the number of members enrolled in or covered for Nerva.
- Peters, S. L.; Yao, C. K.; Philpott, H.; Yelland, G. W.; Muir, J. G.; Gibson, P. R. Randomised clinical trial: the efficacy of gut-directed hypnotherapy is similar to that of the low FODMAP diet for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 2016;44(5):447–459.
- Stanghellini, V. Functional Dyspepsia and Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Beyond Rome IV. Digestive Diseases, 2018;35(Suppl 1):14–17: functional GI disorders represent 40% of diagnoses in gastroenterological settings. The structural/complex split either side is illustrative.
- Peery, A. F. et al. Burden and Cost of Gastrointestinal, Liver, and Pancreatic Diseases in the United States. Gastroenterology, 2022. The $119.6B estimate is a national whole-GI figure from 2018.
- Sperber, A. D. et al. Worldwide Prevalence and Burden of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, Results of Rome Foundation Global Study. Gastroenterology, 2021;160(1):99–114: over 40% of adults worldwide meet criteria for a disorder of gut-brain interaction (functional gastrointestinal disorder).
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: stomach and abdominal pain is the most common principal reason for adult emergency department visits. See also Wu et al., Academic Emergency Medicine, 2025, on ED abdominal-pain presentations 2007–2019.
- HIF and Mindset Health member health program partnership, current as at August 2026. Program details and outcome figures are available to funds and plans under discussion.