It’s All In Your Head

The following post originally ran on Disruptive Woman to Watch Lisa Suennen’s blog Venture Valkyrie on January 26th.
“Mental health needs a great deal of attention. It’s the final taboo and it needs to be faced and dealt with.”

That quote is from the great philosopher and clinician, oh wait I mean 80’s post-punk rocker Adam Ant. Seriously. But he is so right on.
Back in 1998 I was part of the management team of a company called Merit Behavioral Care, also once known as American Biodyne. The company was the first of its kind: a company that delivered what we now know as population health for people with mental health and substance abuse challenges (then called managed behavioral healthcare). We looked essentially like an insurance company or HMO specifically for people who need that kind of help. We had a huge network of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and the like, did care coordination and utilization review, paid claims and did everything associated with accessing, using and paying for behavioral healthcare services.
I had joined this company’s management team in 1989 when it was an early stage start-up and, by the time I exited stage left 9 years later upon it’s ultimate sale to Magellan Health, it had grown to serve more than 35 million beneficiaries. When I left the company to work in the venture world, I assumed that I would see every behavioral health deal that anyone thought of, given how steeped I had been in that marketplace for so lo...

Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - January 30, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Mental Health Source Type: blogs