4 Years of Backpack: Built for Families. Powered by Purpose
A Letter from Our Founder & CEO, Hafeezah Muhammad
Dear Backpack Community,
Four years ago, I started this journey as a mom on a mission.
My son needed mental health care—and we had insurance—but no one would accept it. I’ll never forget how that moment felt. As a parent, watching your child struggle and being told there’s no help for you—it’s heartbreaking. That single experience uncovered a deep, painful gap in our system: a system that routinely denies access to families simply because of the type of insurance they carry.
I knew something had to change. And so, I built Backpack Healthcare with one simple but powerful vision: every family deserves mental health care, regardless of their insurance. And when a child is struggling, the entire family deserves support.
Today, I’m incredibly proud to say: we’ve made that vision a reality.
What We’ve Accomplished
In just four years, Backpack Healthcare has become one of the top-performing pediatric mental health providers for Medicaid in the country—while also expanding to serve commercial insurance patients. We’ve made access equitable and sustainable.
Here’s a look at what we’ve achieved:
- Over 40,000 therapy and psychiatry sessions completed
- 100%+ year-over-year growth
- March 2025 marked our highest number of sessions in a single month
- More than 8,000 chats delivered via our Care Companion
- Launched the first pre-licensure training program, with 10+ graduates from our clinical residency
- Serving patients with both Medicaid and commercial insurance
- 9 university affiliations supporting our residency program
- Selected by the NIST AI Safety Institute Consortium as the only pediatric mental health company
- Chosen for the Google for Startups AI Accelerator
We’re also proud to serve a diverse and growing client base. Sixty percent of our patients are under the age of 18, while thirty-nine percent are 18 and older. Because when one member of a family is struggling, we know the entire family is affected.
Built for Families—and Designed with Our Clinicians in Mind
At Backpack, we’ve never been just about treating symptoms—we’re about transforming systems. And we know that transformation starts with the people on the front lines: our clinicians.
Our providers are the heart of what we do. That’s why we’ve built tools and services to support them just as much as they support the families we serve. We recognize that healing doesn’t happen in isolation, and neither does delivering care.
To ease the burden on our clinical teams, we’ve invested in:
- A custom-built Electronic Health Record (EHR) for pediatric mental health
- Integrated digital portals for clinicians, care coordinators, and families
- An infrastructure that simplifies scheduling, documentation, and care coordination
- A suite of AI-powered tools including:
- AI Progress Note Generator
- AI Treatment Plan Generator
- AI No-Show Prediction
- AI Patient-Therapist Matching
- AI Care Companion
These innovations are helping our teams focus more on people and less on paperwork—making every interaction more meaningful.
Still Hungry. Still in the Fight.
Even with all we’ve accomplished, our work is far from done.
Serving Medicaid populations is still complex, still underfunded, and still filled with roadblocks. But we remain committed. We run toward these challenges because the families we serve are worth it.
We’re growing not for the sake of growth—but because the need is great, and the time to act is now.
Carried by Mission. Fueled by Teamwork.
To our team: thank you for your dedication, your creativity, and your heart. You’ve helped turn a mother’s mission into a national movement.
To the families who trust us with their care: we carry that responsibility with deep respect and gratitude.
Four years ago, Backpack was just an idea. Today, it’s a thriving, tech-enabled mental health care company serving families across the country.
And we’re only getting started.
Here’s to the future we’re building—together.
Hafeezah Muhammad Founder & CEO