Matthew Press, MD: How Penn Medicine’s CoCM Model Helps PCPs Treat Mental Health—and Avoid Burnout

Penn Medicine's Penn Integrated Care (PIC) program, a collaborative care model (CoCM) that integrates mental health and physical health care within the primary care setting, has been shown to positively impact not only patients, but primary care physicians (PCPs) as well, Matthew Press, MD, MsC, told internists during his presentation at the 2025 ACP Internal Medicine Meeting in New Orleans. Dr Press, is an associate professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine in the department of medicine at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, in Wynnewood, PA.

Speaking with Patient Care at the meeting, Dr Press described how Penn Medicine’s integrated CoCM is transforming mental health care delivery in primary care. In the video above, he details the model’s measurable impact on patient outcomes—including remission rates for depression and anxiety—as well as its role in reducing total cost of care and alleviating burnout among PCPs.

The following transcript has been edited for clarity, style, and length.

Patient Care: In your presentation, titled "Behavioral Health Integration: Sustainable Implementation," you described Penn Medicine's PIC CoCM model and how it's positively impacted both primary care physicians and their patients. Can you talk more about that?

Matthew Press, MD: We were hopeful—and frankly expecting—that this model would benefit patients, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing. Remission rates are upwards of 50% for both depression and anxiety. Patients appreciate the convenience of receiving mental health care in their primary care setting. There’s less stigma when you’re in a waiting room that could just as easily be for a sore throat, diabetes, or depression. It’s accessible, convenient—and importantly—we’re seeing real improvements in mental health scores.

We’re also noticing better control of chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension. On the population level, patients enrolled in collaborative care are visiting the ER and hospital less often. That translates into lower total costs of care, which supports our value-based payment contracts. So, there’s a strong return on investment through Shared Savings arrangements.

What we didn’t expect—at least not to this extent—was the overwhelming appreciation from our primary care clinicians. We hadn’t fully understood how much of their burnout stemmed from a lack of resources to manage mental health conditions. As a physician, it’s frustrating to diagnose something but not have the tools to effectively treat it. That’s a tough spot to be in, and it can consume a lot of time that doesn’t feel high-value.

In our model, we made it easy for primary care clinicians to access the program. It’s just a simple referral in the electronic medical record. From there, the program takes over—assessing whether the patient is appropriate for collaborative care. This model is geared toward patients with mild to moderate depression, anxiety, and some substance use disorders. More serious conditions—like bipolar disorder, PTSD, or schizophrenia—are referred directly to specialty mental health providers.

We told our primary care teams: refer any mental health concern to the program, and we’ll take it from there. That gave clinicians both a practical resource and a sense of relief. They could say to the patient sitting across from them, “I’m concerned about this, and I have a solution.” That’s incredibly gratifying.

The care manager carries much of the day-to-day work, and the psychiatric consultant provides expert oversight. It really lightens the load for the primary care team.

We’re now in 50 of our primary care practices and still expanding. Honestly, we could never go back. Our clinicians have come to depend on this program and the support it provides. Taking it away is simply not an option anymore.

For more of our conversation with Dr Press at ACP 2025 check out:

• Bringing Mental Health into Primary Care: A Conversation with Matthew Press, MD
• Collaborative Care for Mental Health: A Scalable, Team-Based Model for Primary Care

For more 2025 ACP Internal Medicine Meeting coverage, please click here.