Hey there. Shân here.

Welcome to The Census.

Each week we tell you everything you need to know about the behavioral healthcare industry in <5 minutes. 

With all the time you’ll save, you can go to medical school (jokes).

So, without further ado, your top stories today: 

1. HEADLINES including venture cash for PHPs, NYC’s new luxury clinic, and $630M in behavioral health care for Californian teens.

2. Money Moves: Precision psychiatry, depression implants, and other funding winners.

3. On Our Radar: Nitazenes are 10x more potent than fentanyl. Clinicians are not prepared.

4. Catch Up Quick: This week’s top stories in less than a minute.

Let’s go.

P.S. Y’all loved the Catch Up Quick links at the end of last week’s mail. So we’ve got extra for you today. Skim read away. 

Reading time: ~4.8 minutes.

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🤑 Swanky $5.4M Mental Health Practice Opens in NYC

The clinic blurs the line between a luxury day spa and a psychiatrist's office.

Being Health launched last week to bring high-end mental health services and novel treatments to NYC patients, including:

• Traditional therapies

• Psychedelic-assisted therapies

• Stress- and burnout-related treatments

• Wellness services (think acupuncture and nutrition)

The new practice reflects the demand for high-end, personalized, comprehensive behavioral health services — and health optimization.

If you are curious (and why would you not be), their ketamine induction packages go for $4.2k. 

💰 PE Cash for PHP Provider Guidelight 

And venture investors aren’t the only ones looking at IOPs and PHPs for future growth.

What’s happening: GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Triple Aim have bet big on Guidelight, a provider focused on intermediate levels of care. 

The startup gives patients more flexible options with intensive outpatient programs (IOPs) and partial hospitalization programs (PHPs).

What’s really happening: Intermediate care is taking off.

Payers love it because it’s much cheaper than in-patient. And group-based intermediate care has high engagement rates. 

• In response, many traditional PE-backed behavioral health providers have also begun to expand their services to include ‘middle acuity’ care options

More here.

🧒 Californian Youth to Get $680M in Behavioral Health Support

The new deal is part of a bigger trend toward public-private behavioral healthcare partnerships. 

What’s happening: California’s inked a $680M deal with pediatric behavioral health providers Brightline and Kooth to offer free services to all residents <25 years (~13M youths).

🧑‍💻 By tapping into digital solutions (both Brightline and Kooth are virtual platforms), California will be augmenting in-person care — key, given that mammoth workforce shortage. 

And they’re not the only ones. 

Public-private partnerships with digital solutions are gaining traction in the youth behavioral health space. For example:

• Talkspace + NYC’s $26M deal to provide virtual behavioral health services to all adolescents aged 13 to 17

• Hazel Health + LA County’s $24M plan to bring mental telehealth services to 1.3M school kids

True, but we’re still here for it. Go deeper. 

❤️‍🩹 Addiction Treatment Providers Move Away From Abstinence-Only Approach

But more traditional approaches will remain an essential part of the treatment spectrum.

What’s happening: Research shows that abstinence-based SUD treatment can be deadlier than no treatment at all. 

• Accordingly, the SUD treatment industry is embracing harm-reduction and medication-assisted treatment (MAT) approaches

The issue: Outpatient drug-free treatment is the cheapest option, so payers still favor it. 

In addition, cost and overdose deaths aren’t the full picture. 

• Pro-MAT research looks at the number of overdoses prevented, not other SUD-related deaths or actual mental health improvement

• Some argue that MAT may not consistently improve long-term outcomes and can often shackle patients to an (albeit safer) drug

Go deeper here.

🛒  Teen Behavioral Health Provider Turnbridge Is for Sale

The Connecticut-based operator is touting its $15 million of EBITDA.

More deets: Turnbridge provides gender-specific inpatient and outpatient programs for children aged 14 to 17 and young adults with SUDs, mental health conditions, or eating disorders.

The provider claims to be among the first US behavioral health programs to “eliminate arbitrary lengths of stay” and has at least four Connecticut locations. 

Full story here. 

Money Moves

Funding rounds, mergers, & partnerships

💰 $56M for low-income integrated healthcare: Accompany Health raises Series A.

🧠 $5.7M for digital brain health: Isaac Health closes an oversubscribed Seed round. 

❤️‍🩹 $18M+ for depression treatment implants: Motif Neurotech raises Series A. 

🧬 $8.3M for precision psychiatry: Circular Genomics builds an RNA test to tackle depression. 

💵 $7M grant for Montefiore to address gaps in the NYC behavioral health system.

🤝 iPN and Lumeris join forces to boost value-based care in Denver. 

🤑 Startups are turning to health systems over traditional VC because they receive a lot more than capital — and at least 23 health systems currently have VC arms. Read more. 

On Our Radar

What we’re watching this week

💊 Nitazenes Are 10x More Potent Than Fentanyl 

And clinicians aren’t prepared. 

What's happening: Nitazenes, an illicit class of highly potent opioids, are becoming more prevalent. 

Yet the SUD industry has little experience when it comes to reversing a nitazene overdose, or knowledge of potential drug-drug interactions. And nitazenes are:

• Difficult to test for

• Easier to smuggle

• Not approved for any therapeutic purpose

The bigger picture: New synthetic opioids are being created faster than the SUD industry can prepare for them. 

Public awareness campaigns, general physician education, and up-to-date testing tech will be key going forward. Go deeper here.

Catch Up Quick

This week’s hot headlines. 

🍔 It’s been a busy week in the eating disorder treatment space. Refresh will shutter its ED treatment division, while Blue Ridge will expand in Florida and Inner Haven Wellness will expand in Wisconsin. Oh, and NAMI announced their young voices of lived experience advisors for 2024 (very politically correct). 

🧓 Talkiatry rolls out a new behavioral health program for seniors.

💊 The new prior authorization rule doesn’t account for drugs. CMS is “actively pursuing” a solution but don’t hold your breath. 

🏥 Diamond Recovery Group launches its first behavioral health facility in Palm Beach Gardens.

🎉 Maven Clinic is killin’ it with employee benefits and now offers all staff access to nutrition and lifestyle coaching from WellTheory. 

💸 Steward Healthcare is “on the brink of failure.” Founded in 2010 by PE firm Cerberus Capital Management, it’s one of Massachusett’s biggest for-profit hospital operators (not for long). 

👏 Telehealth providers breathe a sigh of relief as senators move to eliminate the (ridiculous) requirement that patients have been seen in person within six months of starting telehealth services.

👀 Behavioral health is key to Elevance’s at-risk strategy as the insurance provider looks to focus on serious mental illness care. Full story.  

🛌 The number of state psychiatric hospital beds has reached a historic low, effectively creating a system where someone must be arrested to access a hospital bed in many states. Go deeper. 

💉 Buprenorphine injections can help OUD patients adhere to medication schedules and experience fewer side effects. But only 1 in 3 clinics offer them. Catch up here. 

💻 Lightfully Behavioral Health is expanding its virtual intensive outpatient program to college students nationwide.

🧾 New admin headaches ahead for Colorado behavioral health facilities if an anti-violence bill is passed.

🧑‍💼 More CFOs are moving to CEO roles than ever before, in part because finance leaders need to deeply understand what drives growth. Healthcare is no exception. 

🪃 Hopebridge gets high-profile boomerang CEO: The autism therapy provider’s CEO David McIntosh just left the firm after ~8 months to hand back the position to the previous CEO, Dennis May.

💰 48% of revenue cycle leaders say patient collections are their biggest concern, surpassing even denials management, per a new report.

⚠️ Hackers are targeting revenue cycles by stealing personal information from workers in “sensitive financial roles.”

🏛️ New ABA therapy center to open in Jefferson Park for children on the spectrum.

✌️ The SUD treatment industry will enjoy a smooth election year — at least in terms of strong support from government bodies. 

⛰️ Colorado’s $11M ‘I Matter’ youth mental health program may be made permanent thanks to a new bill. 

🤔 Former US Representative Patrick J. Kennedy to establish a new national mental health and addiction policy practice for Healthsperien.

That’s it for this week. See you next Wednesday!

- Shân

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