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

Today, we’re breaking down:

• The scrapping of the ‘Chevron doctrine’ 

• Mental health startups attracting investor cash

• All your latest news headlines in under two minutes

Let’s dive in.

- Shân

P.S. Wishing everyone a great Independence Day! We’ll be eating our body weight in potato salad and slightly burnt hamburgers. The best.

Reading time: ~3.5 minutes.

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On our radar

What we’re watching this week 

🧑‍⚖️ Lower courts can interpret vague health care laws

Now that the ‘Chevron doctrine’ has been thrown out, judges will have more say in behavioral health care regulation.

The Supreme Court has scrapped the decades-old doctrine that gave health agencies the power to interpret vague or ill-defined laws — and has passed this power on to the lower courts.

Many are up in arms, saying it’s “only going to hasten the trend we're already seeing” of judges setting aside regulations (like, you know, in the abortion pill access mess).

And it matters for behavioral health care. More providers are moving into the Medicare and Medicaid markets, which will be impacted.

Health care rulemaking will be far less predictable, and policymaking much slower, at least in the short run. 

To go deeper, our suggested reads include KFF’s (excellent, as usual) analysis, this (since ignored) plea, and BHB’s latest report. 

💰 The mental health startups winning cash this year

A brief summary of Crunchbase’s latest article.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock bigger than the presidential debate team’s, you will have heard, ad nauseam, that mental health startup funding tapered after the COVID-induced boom.

But investment analysts are “still seeing steady deal flow and big rounds getting done.” 

The startups winning fresh cash focus on:

• Targeting underserved populations

• Care covered by payers (no surprise)

• Matching patients with therapists best suited to their needs (e.g., Two Chairs, InStride, Backpack Health)

And to state the obvious, investors may get extra jumpy about how startups screen patients before prescribing medication (no, we are not Done with this one yet). 

Let’s get your news headlines. 

Catch up quick

This week’s top stories

Latest news

🥴 Half of states lack full SUD treatment coverage across MCOs, potentially leaving many patients without access to crucial care.

🤯 Hundreds of Americans may have unknowingly received therapy from an untrained impostor who masqueraded as an online therapist.

💰 The Justice Department has filed $146M+ in charges for fraudulent addiction treatment schemes. 

📦 The rise in hoarding disorder as America ages requires a national response, a new Senate report suggests.

📊 State-by-state mental health rankings will be upended thanks to the emergence of gen AI for mental health, says Forbes.

🔎 The final rule to overhaul behavioral health parity regulations has been submitted to the White House for a last-stop review.

🍔 Treatment-resistant anorexia patients may benefit from palliative care, comfort care, and even hospice care, experts say.

🔒 Addiction treatment provider Retreat Behavioral Health has closed after an ‘intensely chaotic and tragic week sealed the company’s fate.’

🍄 The UN warns of health dangers in commercial psychedelic drug use as private investment continues to outpace scientific evidence.

🧑‍⚖️ A judge found California prison officials to be in civil contempt for failing to hire enough mental health professionals to treat incarcerated people with SMIs.

💡 Behavioral health support may be key for chronic pain patients, whose claims can cost 5.6X more when behavioral psychosocial aspects are involved.

🕵️ House Republican leaders are calling for an investigation into ACA sign-ups, saying insurance brokers are fraudulently enrolling customers.

⛺ The Supreme Court’s new decision to enforce bans on public sleeping or camping will have ‘horrible consequences’ for mental and physical health.

👀 Arkansas is suing two pharmacy benefit managers for fueling the state’s opioid crisis.

🍷 MAT for alcohol use disorder is overshadowed by the ubiquity of alcohol and MAT’s acceptance as a primary OUD treatment (we squeezed all the acronyms in there, yes).

🍺 Related: America’s alcohol-induced health problems are rising fast.

👶 And, alcohol or drug use by fathers (not a typo) during pregnancy increases the risk of their offspring developing an intellectual disability.

🛑 Google and TikTok have banned Done from running ads amid a widening federal crackdown on the distribution of Adderall.

⚠️ Bloom Health announced a data security incident that may involve personal and protected patient health information. 

🚫 SCOTUS has blocked a decade-in-the-making opioid settlement that shielded the Sacklers.

😞 ~30% of states fail to collect the information that could identify patterns of maltreatment among foster children in residential facilities.

💔 A 988 crisis lifeline for LGBTQ+ youths has been swamped with calls.

Expansions, launches, & partnerships

🎉 Virtual behavioral health provider Spring Health announced a new program focused on addressing patients’ social determinants of health.

🧒 ABS Kids has opened seven new ABA therapy centers in the US so far this year, with ‘dozens more’ planned.

☎️ Summit BHC, which has seen a 50% increase in requests for outpatient services, is launching — surprise — a new outpatient services line. 

🏥 The Montefiore Einstein Center for Children’s Mental Health has received unanimous approval (and $3M+in  extra funding) from NYC.

✍️ Syra Health secured a contract with the Missouri Department of Mental Health to provide qualified behavioral health professionals throughout the state.

Funding rounds & investor moves

🇺🇸 Japan’s largest IDD provider is buying Developmental Disability Centers of Nebraska for $50M in a move into the US market. 

💸 Virtual Therapeutics has successfully completed a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of common stock of Akili, a digital therapeutics firm. 

💉 Startup Ovax Inc. raised $10M to develop a vaccine to prevent fentanyl deaths by blocking the drug’s high.

🤖 INVI MindHealth landed $1.5M to advance its AI-driven mental health platform.

💰 Myrtle Recovery Centers has been acquired by biotech company FOXO Technologies in a rather unusual deal.  

💲 Arcadia has acquired CareJourney, a health analytics firm making value-based care contracts easier to participate in. 

♻️ AI-enabled revenue cycle management company Adonis raised $31M.

Studies & opinion pieces

😕 The arrests of Done executives couldn’t have come at a worse time for the industry — and will cast a long shadow on behavioral health (opinion).

💊 A new MAT for meth addiction, using extended-release injectable naltrexone + oral bupropion, shows great promise (study).

💡 Psychiatrists have a duty to see Medicare and Medicaid patients, even if these treatments are less remunerative than serving cash payers (opinion). 

🧠 In precision autism treatment, STP1 is ‘well-tolerated in ASD-Phen1 patients and shows engagement in ASD brain regions of interest’ (study). 

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.

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