Emyria’s (ASX:EMD) push to scale its insurer-backed mental health services across Australia has taken a significant step forward, with Medibank expanding its funding agreement to support patients at the company’s new Mornington Peninsula clinic in Victoria.
The arrangement allows eligible Medibank members to access Emyria’s psychiatrist-led trauma programs for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when admitted to the Avive Health hospital at Mornington Peninsula. By extending the partnership into Victoria, the insurer and provider are attempting to tackle one of the biggest structural barriers in mental health care: the high cost and fragmented access to specialist treatment.
Nearly half of Australians will experience a mental health condition during their lifetime, yet multidisciplinary care for complex disorders remains difficult to obtain.
Emyria’s model seeks to address this gap by combining hospital-based programs, psychotherapy, psychiatric oversight and insurer funding into a single treatment pathway. The goal is improving patient outcomes while demonstrating that intensive mental health treatment can be delivered sustainably at scale.
The Mornington Peninsula facility is expected to commence operations in the second quarter of 2026, with prescriber approvals underway and staff training scheduled to begin in March. Once active, it will become Emyria’s first insurer-supported site in Victoria, joining existing programs in Western Australia and Queensland as part of a broader national rollout strategy.
The expansion comes as the company continues to emphasise evidence supporting its treatment approach. Recent 12-month follow-up data from its PTSD program showed sustained improvements among patients, reinforcing the durability of outcomes generated by its Empax treatment model. Emyria collects longitudinal clinical data through each treatment pathway, using this real-world evidence to refine protocols and demonstrate value to insurers and hospital partners.
For Executive Chairman Greg Hutchinson, the Victorian expansion represents more than geographic growth. It signals proof that the insurer-integrated model can scale nationally while lowering out-of-pocket costs for patients who would otherwise struggle to access intensive therapy.
Medibank's expansion of its agreement with Emyria’s was part of a broadening of its support for people with TRD or PTSD, with the company's customers now able to access treatment in Sydney and Canberra.
Medibank's Chief Medical Officer and practising psychiatrist, Dr Andrew Wilson, said this demonstrates Medibank’s ongoing commitment to improving the affordability and access to mental health care for customers.
“The rate of mental ill-health is growing at an alarming rate in Australia. Over the past decade, Medibank and ahm have spent around $2 billion towards our customers’ mental health hospital admissions,” Dr Wilson said. “Our own claims data shows that around half of customers with acute mental health issues will readmit to hospital within the first 12 months, and in many cases it’s multiple readmissions over the course of their life.
“For many people, the current system is not working for them and is creating more problems for our stretched health system. Unless treated effectively, mental ill-health is a major cause of premature death and disability."