Employee Assistance Programs & Ketamine Treatment: A Confidential Care Pathway
“The goal of a patient, Lumin Health, and an EAP is 100% aligned: help a person get back to functionality as quickly as possible.”
— Benjamin Yudkoff, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Lumin Health
At its simplest, that’s the shared purpose. For an employee assistance program, for a clinician, and for the patient sitting between them, the aim is the same: restore stability, ease, and the ability to return to the routines that anchor self-esteem and meaning.
Dr. Ben Yudkoff described this alignment not in abstract policy terms, but as a deeply human point of convergence. People want to function again. Employers want their teams to feel capable and whole. Clinicians want recovery to come sooner, with less suffering in the meantime.
From Warm Intro to Outcome Reporting
Dr. Yudkoff notes that Lumin Health’s treatments — including ketamine therapy and esketamine (Spravato) — can sometimes accelerate that process of return to function:
“Some of our treatments can work as quickly as in a day. Sometimes they take a few weeks to kick in, but much more quickly and much more predictably than standard medications alone.”
This is where the interests of patients, EAPs, and care teams intersect most clearly. When recovery happens sooner — whether that means fewer weeks away from work or fewer foggy, unproductive days at work — the benefit is shared by everyone involved.
“Feeling better,” Dr. Yudkoff explained, “is not just for its own value but for getting back to those activities that help generate a sense of self-esteem, productivity, and purpose.”
That focus on function reframes what “outcome” means in mental-health care. It’s not a productivity metric — it’s a measure of restored participation in life.
Confidentiality and consent throughout the ketamine therapy program
At Lumin Health, we strongly believe that all coordination with external partners — EAPs included — must honor clinical confidentiality first.
Any contact between an employer-affiliated program and any third party clinic must preserve the patient as the primary owner of their information and experience. Lumin Health’s role, in that view, is simply to provide another stream of care — never to collapse medical treatment into workplace reporting.
This approach allows EAPs to connect employees with evidence-based, FDA-approved options like esketamine (Spravato) treatment while keeping the therapeutic process private, personal, and voluntary.
Safety and escalation pathways in ketamine therapy
Part of Lumin Health’s commitment to getting people back to feeling like themselves again is making safety visible.
While not specific to any single protocol, Dr. Ben Yudkoff stresses that all treatment streams should include clear monitoring and escalation plans — before, during, and after ketamine sessions. His message to EAP leaders should be straightforward:
“We want to be part of that process … an alternative service line that could potentially bring people to those moments of relief more quickly and completely than standard work alone.”
That phrasing — part of the process — underscores partnership, not replacement.
Ketamine Therapy scheduling, access & insurance
For EAPs seeking to connect employees with modern depression treatments, Dr. Yudkoff suggested focusing communication on clarity and timing rather than salesmanship.
- Explain that esketamine (Spravato) is FDA-approved, always administered in-clinic under supervision, and often covered by your workplace insurance.
- Explain that ketamine therapy can, in some cases, yield improvements within days, helping shorten the time someone spends unable to work or function fully.
That’s all most workplace partners need to know: access is structured, monitored, and faster-acting than traditional medication pathways.
Aggregate outcomes for employers
Though Lumin Health refrains from framing ketamine treatment in economic terms, there is an inevitable ripple effect: when a person feels better sooner, the workplace benefits, too.
“Sometimes that means the durations of time people are out of work are foreshortened. Sometimes that means that periods of time when someone is at work but less productive are foreshortened.”
Dr. Ben Yudkoff positions this not as justification, but as observation. The return of vigor, attention, and self-esteem in an individual naturally benefits their professional life — and by extension, the community around them.
In this way, employee assistance programs (EAPs) collaborating with ketamine treatment centers is a shared investment in human restoration.
A Shared Commitment to Function and Dignity
“Lumin Health wants to be a part of your process,” Dr. Yudkoff said, “and can function as an alternative treatment stream that could potentially bring people to those moments more quickly than standard work alone.”
That is the invitation to EAPs and employers — not to co-opt clinical care from established providers in the community, but to join a process where everyone’s goal is the same: help people feel and function better, safely, comfortably and effectively, so they can return to the work and relationships that give life meaning.
