Brought to you by:

Welcome to The Census, your weekly roundup of what matters in behavioral healthcare.

Today, we’re breaking down:

• The rise in digital health care funding

• All your latest news headlines in under two minutes

Let’s dive in.

- Shân

P.S. This mail is skim-readable. But if you’re in a rush (who isn’t), use Ctrl/CMD + F [autism/eating disorder/other keywords] to jump to your stories of interest.

Reading time: ~4 minutes.

On our radar

What we’re watching this week 

💸 Digital health care funding is on the rise…

… And mental health received $682M in the first half of 2024, the most funding of any digital health care segment. 

Here are four key takeaways from Rock Health’s latest report.

1. Early-stage deals lead the charge with $5.7B so far

Seed, Series A, and Series B checks accounted for 84% of labeled H1 raises in digital health care. 

Series A activity was especially strong, with a median deal size of $15M (that’s $3M more than last year).

If this pattern continues, 2024 will exceed 2019 and 2023 year-end totals — the years that serve as helpful comparators outside of the blur pandemic-fueled funding cycle that was 2020-2022.

This fits with our May coverage of the rise in behavioral health growth equity deals (and here’s what VCs want from them).

2.  One in three dollars invested in H1 went to digital startups using AI 

This is a long quote, but worth a read to see where investors stand:

3.  Mental health topped the list of most-funded clinical indications, again 

It attracted $682M in H1 — more than double the amount raised by any other segment (chart on the right).

4. Unlabeled rounds are waning, a sign of stabilizing market conditions 

Unlabeled raises tend to spike during periods of market transition, when startups need access to capital but don’t meet benchmarks for their next labeled round.

And they’re starting to taper, which could mark the beginning of a “more normal” cadence of labeled rounds, Rock Health says. 

We’ll keep you updated as H2 data is collected.

Let’s get to your news headlines.

Catch up quick

This week’s top stories

Latest news

💻 For the first time, Medicare is proposing to pay doctors for digital therapies that treat behavioral health conditions.

🚨 Illicit fentanyl is increasingly being laced with xylazine in western states and New England, according to data released this week.

⚠️ Digital autism firm As You Are has stopped taking patients, noting “severe challenges within the health care payer space.” 

👀 Fifteen Minnesota autism providers are under fraud investigation as lawmakers consider adding a state license requirement.

🫢 Georgia’s Medicaid plan, the only one in the nation with a work requirement, had a dismal first year of enrolments (a reminder that a Republican term is likely to see Medicaid work requirements play out in many states). 

🚭 Smokeless nicotine pouches are having a moment reminiscent of the teen vaping boom.

👃The FDA has (again) rejected Orexo’s nasal spray for opioid overdose rescue, calling for an additional Human Factors study.

🤖 Doctors are using AI chatbots to help fight insurance denials. 

💡 CMS’s proposed 2.6% outpatient pay increase for 2025 is likely to affect IOPs and PHPs, and create new codes for OUD medications.

🧑‍⚕️ Related: Doctors are staring at a ~3% cut to their Medicare payments next year.

🏛️ Overcoming community opposition to new treatment centers requires educating local agencies and playing “insider baseball” says BHB.

🥤Young women with eating disorders are overdoing it with energy drinks, experts warn.

😅Master’s-level mental health providers are choosing coaching over therapy careers because of the flexibility and benefits.

📋 The Texas Association of Behavioral Health Systems has been created to address access and funding crises in the state.

📊 Rates of autism are higher among children with public insurance compared to those with private or no insurance coverage, CMS reports.

💊 Efforts to increase access to take-home methadone have paid off, but challenges to access persist.

🛑 The FTC’s near-total ban on noncompete agreements has been partially halted by a federal court.

🧑‍⚖️ The DOJ has reached an agreement with Rite Aid to settle allegations that the pharmacy chain knowingly dispensed unlawful opioid prescriptions.

🚢 The US Navy is reporting record-high suicide rates amid high stress and quality-of-life issues.

🔎New York's Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Board is calling for more oversight into how counties spend millions in opioid settlement payments.

❤️ Police projects and lifesaving drugs mark the first use of opioid settlement cash in California.

🧑‍💼Headspace has named DoorDash veteran Tom Pickett as its next CEO.

📉 Drugmaker Indivior’s shares plunged 44% thanks to slowing opioid addiction treatment sales and a discontinuation of schizophrenia drug Perseris.

💡Opioid addiction treatment centers can play a key role in tackling hepatitis C, says STAT. 

Expansions, launches, & partnerships

📱 Teladoc will integrate Brightline's pediatric, adolescent, and family mental healthcare services into its virtual care platform.

💰 Ethema Health will buy Kentucky-based Edgewater Recovery Center, adding 600 beds that primarily care for Medicaid beneficiaries.

👬 Cityblock partnered with Alliance Health to provide care to members with serious mental illness and/or SUDs in Alliance's behavioral health plan.

☎️ RedBox Rx added online talk therapy services to its platform.

🤝 Thriveworks teamed up with opioid addiction treatment provider Ophelia to refer patients to each other.

🍔Alsana eating disorder recovery community launched PHP and IOP treatments at its residential treatment program in Birmingham, AL.

🤖 Innovaccer and P3 Health Partners have joined forces to bring AI to value-based care.

Funding rounds & investor moves

📝 Regard landed $61M for its AI tool to evaluate patient history and generate clinical decisions and documentation.

💸Headway is raising a new ~$100M funding round which will value the company at $2.3B (roughly double its valuation from a year earlier).

🚺 Seven Starling secured ~$11M to improve access to women’s mental health.

Why are you seeing this ad?

Because we know how hard it can be to grow your census. And we really like putting blue buttons in this email.

If you press this blue button below, you’ll get a free website audit from a team that grows patient counts from zero to full, using digital marketing.

The audit is yours to keep. 

Just scroll to the bottom of the page and fill out the form.

Studies & opinion pieces

📲Kids and adolescents who reduced their screen time for two weeks saw a “significant” boost in their mental health (study).

👀Doctors ‘overprescribing’ opioids isn’t the cause of the overdose epidemic — and it never was (opinion).

🎲 How board games can help autistic people build social connections and feelings of community (study). 

🧑‍💼 Four autism services executives to watch (opinion). 

❤️ How behavioral health providers should approach diversity in the clinician workforce (opinion). 

That’s it for this week! See you next Wednesday with the latest headlines.

- Shân

P.S. You can email me here if you want to share any feedback, or let me know about a business I should be featuring.

Did someone forward you this mail? Wow, you have cool friends. Join us!