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

Today, we’re breaking down:

• What growth equity deals are — and why they’re on the rise

• Eventbrite’s mammoth misstep in the recovery space

• Your latest news headlines in under two minutes

Let’s dive in.

- Shân

P.S. We’re building a list of founders and companies to feature in our interview pieces. If you or someone you know is doing cool stuff, fill out this 10-second form.

Reading time: ~4.5 minutes.

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On Our Radar

What we’re watching this week 

💸 “Growth Equity” Deals Come For Behavioral Health

They’re high-risk, high-reward minority stake investments. And behavioral health venture capitalists spent $350M on them in Q1.

What the heck is a growth equity deal? M&A firm Mertz Taggart’s founder, Kevin Taggart, uses a baseball metaphor to explain:

• When PE buys established behavioral health firms outright or purchases a majority interest in them, they’re aiming to “consistently hit singles and doubles”

• But sometimes, venture capitalists want to swing for the fences, and so purchase minority stakes in firms they believe are highly scalable

The latter are known as growth equity deals. 

And there were 18 of them in behavioral health in Q1 alone. Cash-wise, this amounted to $350M as venture capitalists ramped up their search for the next big thing.

💡 This means investors are increasingly spending smaller amounts of dough on a variety of early-stage startups. They’re likely to yield a lot more strikeouts, but also the occasional grand slam.

We’ll let you know which ones make it.

🤯 Eventbrite Promoted Illegal Opioid Sales to People Searching for Addiction Recovery Help

An investigation found thousands of posts selling escort services and drugs like Xanax and oxycodone — recommended alongside addiction recovery events.

Eventbrite is a website where anyone can organize and sell tickets for — you guessed it — events.

• The platform also lists services that may be of interest to people attending featured events, like merch, VIP experiences, and parking passes 

These are supposed to be above-board offerings, but it appears many violate the company’s terms and conditions. Over seven thousand do, to be exact. Some even openly advertise escort services that include fentanyl powder “without a prescription.”

🚨 The kicker is that Eventbrite’s algorithm is actively recommending these dodgy drug-punting listings to people attending addiction recovery events. 

We have nothing left to say. You can read WIRED’s full story here. 

Let’s get your news headlines. 

Catch Up Quick

This week’s top stories

Latest News

🏛️ Autism therapy provider Hopebridge is opening its fellowship program to non-employees to try and attract and retain BCBAs amid the systemic shortage. 

🚬 Cannabis poisoning among older adults tripled in Canada after the country legalized weed. 

🍔 Eating disorder treatment platform Arise wants to partner with research institutions to foster innovation (read: fast-track psychedelics and VR treatments).

🧘 In a demo of GPT-40, OpenAI showed an employee getting a real-time tutorial on using breathwork to calm his nerves.

🧠 Humana now covers TMS therapy for teen depression — the first commercial payer to do so since the FDA’s clearance of NeuroStar TMS.

🔗 Bradford Behavioral Health’s new CEO, Rob Marsh, will focus on providing a full continuum of care including medical supportive detox and sober living.

🫄 A new maternal mental health bill would require insurance plans to provide free mental health and SUD services during pregnancy and postpartum.

🚨 Inequities in mental health will cost the US nearly half a trillion dollars in 2024 — and $1.3T by 2040 if left unchecked, per Deloitte.

🥴 Teladoc may face another class action lawsuit filed on behalf of investors who claim the company made false or misleading statements.

🧑‍⚖️ A bill to make California the first state to create universal health care through a single-payer system was shot down last Thursday.

⚠️ Workers are cheating on drug tests at the highest rate in more than 30 years, at least according to one of America’s largest drug-testing labs.

😅 The LA Department of Mental Health has confirmed a data breach of sensitive patient information after an employee opened a phishing email. 

👀 After adding 11 new facilities over the last year, eating disorder treatment provider Monte Nido has cut 100+ roles.

📉 US drug overdose deaths dropped for the first time since 2018 but still topped 100k. 

🍴 Hidden River Eating Disorder Treatment Center is now in-network with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

🌿 The feds have officially proceeded with the cannabis reclassification, but it still won’t be a golden ticket for researchers. 

🍄 On a semi-related note, California may soon recognize psilocybin, mescaline, ecstasy, and other psychedelic drugs as therapeutic.

💡 In the latest move toward intermediate care, Acadia Healthcare is turning its attention to PHPs and IOPs.

📈 Mental health insurance claims increased by 83% from 2019 to 2023, and telehealth visits for mental health care increased 84-fold, per a new report.

🤖 Senators have released a roadmap to support the deployment of AI in healthcare — and implement guardrails to ensure patient safety.

🤕 Circles of Care Inc. has once again failed to protect its employees from patient violence at a Florida facility.

🔎 A new gold-infused sensor can effectively detect the presence of fentanyl.

👏 Walgreens will offer its own version of naloxone, both online and in stores (and for ~$10 cheaper than Narcan).

🌲 Mi’kmaq Nation has invested $50k from opioid settlement funds in traditional healing to treat addiction.

💔 Missed care, fewer patients, and more ED room visits have been reported in rural areas as states cull their Medicaid rolls.

Expansions, Launches, & Partnerships

🏗️ Nystrom & Associates has expanded its Hugo, Minnesota clinic to ~2X its previous capacity and will soon add a specialized talk therapy program.

🏛️ KAV Health Group has launched a new Mental Health Day Treatment Program in Dayton.

🤝 Concert Health and WellSpan Health have partnered to provide same-day behavioral health services in parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

🍔 Eating Disorder Solutions has launched a virtual intensive outpatient program IOP in Texas.

 🫂  Inner Haven Wellness has opened an in-person adolescent eating disorder IOP in Wisconsin.

🍂 Hopebridge is opening two new North Carolina-based autism therapy centers in Wilmington and Winston-Salem this fall.

 🧒 Autism provider ABS Kids is opening two new facilities in Tennessee and one new center in California.

💰 Stride Autism Centers is expanding in the Midwest with a new center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

✅ The Pediatric Emergency Department at Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital has become the first Certified Autism Center in New Jersey.

💻 Missouri has launched a statewide digital health initiative to transform crisis response and behavioral health care through its MOConnect platform.

🏥 The Indiana Center For Recovery announced the opening of its newest facility in Bedford, bringing its total clinic count in the state to nine. 

👀 South County Community Health has purchased two properties in Sunnyvale, California for $10M.

🧑‍💻 Kyruus Health has expanded its national provider network to include virtual behavioral health providers.

🧠 Curve Health’s expanded technology capabilities now include behavioral health and telepsychiatry services.

🎉 Three southeastern SUD treatment providers have merged to form Tulip Hill Healthcare (read our interview with their vice president here).

Funding Rounds & Investor Moves

💲 Wayspring received an undisclosed minority investment from CVS Health Ventures to expand its ‘innovative’ SUD Home program.

🧠 Psychiatric hospital company US HealthVest has partnered with Capital One to access $130M in debt for new projects and acquisitions.

🗣️ Virtual speech therapy startup Expressable landed $28M in a funding round led by HarbourVest.

💸 Caravel Autism Health will be bought by PE firm GTCR (a reminder of the Curo Health Services fraud case is useful, if not necessary, here). 

💰 Nonprofit network Inperium plans to acquire behavioral health provider Resources for Human Development.

Studies & Opinion Pieces

🍔 Self-guided digital interventions may close the treatment gap for binge eating disorder (study). 

👁️ Simple eye-tracking exercises may offer an effective solution for autism diagnosis in young children (study). 

🍴 Dismantling the myth of “all foods fit” in eating disorder treatment (study). 

🧒 Autism therapy in 2024 will be defined by a move to VBC and providing tailored solutions to an increasingly heterogeneous patient population (opinion). 

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

- Shân

P.S. Here’s that (anonymous) link if you know someone we should highlight in a feature piece.

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