5 Things Veterans Should Know About Telehealth Mental Health Care

Paul Kim knows what it feels like to pick up the phone to find mental health care and hear nothing back. An Army veteran who served in Iraq with the 506th Infantry Regiment — the unit at the center of the PBS Frontline documentary “The Wounded Platoon” — Kim spent years after service struggling with PTSD before eventually seeing a Department of Veterans Affairs psychiatrist, who finished the appointment in under 10 minutes, handed him a prescription, and moved on.

“He didn’t educate me about my diagnosis at all,” Kim said. “There was no treatment plan. I was non-compliant because I had no idea what the goal was.”

That experience led Kim to spend a decade studying the behavioral health industry before co-founding Sensible Care, a veteran-founded telepsychiatry and teletherapy company now operating in six states and accepting Tricare. In a conversation with Military.com, he outlined what veterans most need to understand about mental health telehealth — and why the barriers that kept his generation from getting care are no longer as fixed as they once were.

1. The Access Problem Is Real, But It’s Not What Most Veterans Think It Is

The mental health provider shortage affecting veterans is well documented. According to research cited by Sensible Care, only 13 percent of Tricare beneficiaries live in areas with an adequate number of military and civilian psychiatrists. The gap is sharpest in the South, Midwest and interior West.

But Kim pushes back on the idea that the shortage is a capacity problem that technology alone can solve. “It’s not an issue of capacity at the moment,” he said. “It’s the bureaucracy and the red tape. We’re not even thinking about needing AI to address the access and availability issue. We have the capacity. We have the technology. Veterans can be seen right now. The barrier is the process getting in the way.”

Telehealth eliminates the geographic barrier. It does not eliminate the paperwork barrier — but companies built specifically to serve the military community handle prior authorizations and insurance navigation so veterans do not have to.

2. Tricare Covers Telehealth Mental Health Care, But You Need to Know the Rules

Tricare covers teletherapy and telepsychiatry, but the rules differ depending on your beneficiary category. Dependents, reservists and National Guard members with Tricare coverage can generally book directly without a referral. Active-duty service members face more friction — the unit gets involved in care coordination, which Kim acknowledges has legitimate readiness rationale but creates access barriers that hurt the people most in need of proactive care.

“We talk to service members all the time who draw the line at medication because they’re worried it’ll affect their career,” Kim said. “Long therapy sessions trigger the same fear. But what we’re actually doing is getting them to a better place so they can get back to work and be productive.”

Prior authorizations are required more frequently under Tricare than most commercial insurance plans. Companies that specialize in military telehealth handle those authorizations on the veteran’s behalf, meaning the bureaucratic friction exists but someone else is managing it.

Read More: Tricare Telehealth Benefit

3. Seeing Both a Therapist and a Psychiatrist Produces Better Outcomes

Most telehealth platforms offer therapy or psychiatry but rarely both under one roof. The reason is operational: Offering both is significantly more complex to build and manage. But the clinical case for combined care is strong.

“People that are seeing a psychiatrist and a therapist just see better results, and more quickly,” Kim said. When evaluating a telehealth provider, veterans should ask whether the platform offers both services and whether the therapist and prescriber can communicate directly about their care — or whether the two sides operate in isolation.

4. The Person on the Other End Matters More Than the Platform

The telehealth industry has grown rapidly, and the quality varies significantly. Many platforms function as marketplaces, connecting patients with whichever licensed provider happens to be available, with no particular investment in the ongoing relationship. The therapist might have another full-time job. They might be unavailable next month. The platform itself has no strong incentive to ensure good long-term outcomes.

Kim describes Sensible Care’s model as deliberately different: full-time W-2 clinicians with benefits, steady pay, and career advancement. “We’re looking for providers who are genuinely committed to the mission,” he said. “We give them a steady paycheck whether their clients show up or not. The result is providers who stick around for years.”

When evaluating any telehealth provider, veterans should ask how clinicians are employed, what the average patient-provider relationship length is, and whether the same provider will be available at the next appointment.

Read More: These Are the Wait Times for VA Claim, Benefits Processing in 2026

5. The Best Argument for Starting Is the Smallest One

Kim’s advice for veterans who are on the fence about seeking mental health care is deliberately low-threshold. “Just spend 30 minutes,” he said. “Thirty minutes talking to a licensed clinician who has been doing this for more than a decade. They’re going to walk you through what the options are and help you understand that this doesn’t have to define you and that you don’t have to struggle with this for the rest of your life.”

He draws the comparison to physical training — a reframe that tends to resonate with a military audience. “Think of it more as like doing PT,” Kim said. “Except you don’t have to get up at 6 a.m. every single day. You just meet and talk to the therapist for 40 minutes once a week. You’re building the resiliency of your psychology and your mind.”

Kim, who struggled for years before seeking care himself, is clear about what happens when veterans wait. “If you had a wound, are you going to wait until it festers and becomes debilitating and actually affects your career and your family life? Don’t do that. Don’t wait.”