Sanford Behavioral Health Joins Manifest Provider Collective to Expand Behavioral Health Solutions
Manifest Provider Collective co-founders (and dream team) Dr. Aaron Friedkin and Rick Abbott
 Alec Green has been developing models to help self-funded employers ease the burden of the behavioral health ecosystem since 2018. As Sanford Behavioral Health’s Executive Vice President, Alec has led efforts to reach self-funded employers by developing an understanding of their needs and engaging community leaders. Consequently, the relationship with Manifest Provider Collective was organic and welcome.
Alec and Manifest founders Rick Abbott and Dr. Aaron Friedkin met through a mutual acquaintance and found common ground when an hour-long tour of Sanford West Behavioral Health Campus turned into a two-hour tour and a conversation about potential collaborations. Alec sat down with Manifest CEO Rick Abbott to discuss his vision for Manifest and how self-funded employers could benefit from their collaboration with Sanford and other collective members to expand behavioral health solutions.
“We’re proud to partner with Manifest to bring meaningful behavioral health solutions to self-funded employers. By working together, we can help families navigate the complex behavioral health ecosystem and ensure access to timely, coordinated, and effective treatment.” Alec Green
Sanford Joins Manifest Provider Collective to Expand Behavioral Health Solutions
Alec Green: How did Manifest get started, and what problem were you originally trying to solve?
Rick Abbott: The origin story of Manifest was the outreach I made to Aaron Friedkin. In my prior role, I was the Senior Vice President of Employer Solutions at Priority Health. I was there for almost two years, but towards the end of 2024 and going into 2025, it became apparent that the sustainability of health care coverage for many employers was no longer guaranteed. A number of employers could not handle the rates they were receiving on their renewals. I called Aaron and said, “You know what’s interesting? There’s an undercurrent of something going on in West Michigan. Several healthcare providers are seeking stronger relationships with employers in this community. In return, employers want to work with them, but there’s no way that is happening. What if we tried to do something about that?”
And Aaron says, “That’s a pretty vague pitch to start a company, Rick. Can you get any meetings? Can you go out and meet with some of these providers that you’re talking about, the employers, agents, and brokers?”
We went on a listening tour, about 100 different meetings, and slowly but surely, we started to realize that there might be a way we could better connect the ecosystem. And that was the start. We didn’t quite know what the product would be, but it culminated in the announcement of the Manifest Provider Collective. It was a very, very grassroots approach to starting a company. Six months and one week later, here we are. I think it worked.
Manifest founders are creating stronger relationships between employers and providers.
Alec Green: Can you tell us what Manifest does and how it differs from an EAP or other vendors that employers typically use?
Rick Abbott: Manifest exists to facilitate an ecosystem that already operates. On the provider side, there are entities like Sanford Behavioral Health that are already doing incredibly innovative work and are on the leading edge of what’s happening in the mental health space. Others in orthopedics, cancer, and imaging are also doing incredible work. But when an employer receives a pitch, it’s usually from a digital health company in San Francisco or New York that focuses on one specific thing. They don’t realize all this innovation is in their backyard.
It is because those companies have venture capital, which gives them hundreds of millions of dollars to fund business development and marketing. However, the solution to the problems people face in their communities is to tap local providers who are already doing this work. So our goal is to go to employers and say, “Did you know that all of these providers like Sanford Behavioral Health are doing things that will impact your people today, and they’re accessible and affordable. You just need a stronger relationship with local providers.”
All we do is bridge that gap. And it allows us to bring together a large group of employers and a large group of providers and say, “We are going to sit at the same really long table and problem solve.” We think that’ll get us to a better place. And no offense to companies in digital health, but I’m not sure we’re going to digital-primary-care our way out of this health care affordability crisis. You have to understand how to leverage your local providers.
Alec Green: From the self-funded employer’s perspective, what are the main benefits of a Manifest/Sanford collaboration?
Rick Abbott: Right now, behavioral health is one of the foremost things on the minds of every benefits leader in the state, if not the country. Unfortunately, the accessibility of behavioral health services is very, very low. There are many reasons people struggle to enter these facilities. It is not always because of access issues. There are issues related to stigma, financial constraints, and fear of disclosure to employers. By working together, we can overcome all of those issues.
Admitting that you don’t feel OK is OK. Mental health is a part of whole-person care. You have to be able to solve for your mental health needs to be able to care for yourself. Fortunately, there is an option in your backyard that delivers those results in a high-quality, cost-efficient manner. I could not be more excited to bring that to fruition.
Alec Green: How do you measure success for those employers, and how does working with Sanford strengthen the value and results that you can show?
Rick Abbott: There are a few different areas employers look at when they measure the value of a company like Sanford Behavioral Health, or when they provide mental health benefits overall. First, how do you make them accessible and help people understand that these are services they should actively seek? There’s no difference between seeking access for anxiety, depression, or substance use disorder than there is for seeking access to a knee replacement or cancer care.
 Second, the medical literature has consistently shown that addressing these issues contributes not only to whole-person care but also to reducing overall health care spending across the continuum. As an employer, it is the right thing to do for your people, and it also helps control spend. And right now, employers are facing an affordability crisis. So, to do the right thing and control healthcare spend? There is no reason not to access these services.
Alec Green: Sanford is super excited to be part of the Manifest Provider Collective, and we look forward to what the future holds.
Thank you!
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