Mental Health Companies Headspace and Ginger Plan $3 Billion Merger
Mental health companies Headspace and Ginger this week announced plans to merge, forming a new company called Headspace Health with a reported value of $3 billion.
A story in the publication
Stat reported that the move will place the new company in the top echelon of companies competing for significant pieces of the mental health market.
In addition, the pair of companies offer complementary services. Headspace sells directly to consumers and businesses and focuses on self-directed meditation, a way for companies to offer a basic mental health resource to workers. Meanwhile, Ginger is a mental health app that offers users an opportunity to chat with a trained behavioral health coach within seconds and meet with a licensed therapist or psychiatrist via video within days.
Both companies were established in 2010 and claim to cover more than 100 million people worldwide, according to
Stat.
Analysis of Multi-District Litigation Settlement Agreement Highlights Implications for Nation’s Overdose Crisis
A new
report from two public health experts examines the implications from the recent settlement agreement that seven attorneys general announced with the three largest opioid distributors and Johnson & Johnson over lawsuits filed against them for their role in the nation’s opioid crisis.
A bipartisan group of seven state attorneys general announced the settlement in July, and a key question has been whether the settlement funds—and other funds from opioid litigation—will be used wisely. The report noted that more than 50 organizations endorsed five principles to outline the process that states and local jurisdictions should implement when deciding how to use the money they will receive. NABH was among those organizations.
The principles include spending the money to save lives; using evidence to guide spending; investing in youth prevention; focusing on racial equity; and developing a fair and transparent process for where to spend the funds.
“Many parts of the settlement agreement are generally consistent with these principles,” wrote authors Josh Rising, M.D., a pediatrician and public health physician and Sara Whaley, a research associate at Johns Hopkins University. “However, considerable discretion in state and local implementation leaves a major role for advocacy. The best use of billions of dollars to address addiction and overdose are at stake.”
Ohio State Seeks Providers for Study on Traumatic Brain Injury Screening in Behavioral Healthcare Organizations
The Ohio State University College of Social Work is conducting a study to understand behavioral health providers’ attitudes and beliefs about screening for traumatic brain injury (TBI) in behavioral healthcare organizations.
The university is currently seeking licensed behavioral health providers in the United States (i.e., psychologists, social workers, counselors, nurses, psychiatrists) to participate in this web-based study. Survey respondents will be asked to complete an online training on how to screen for TBI (approximately 30-45 minutes) and complete a 15-minute survey. Participants will receive a certificate of completion for one continuing education (CE) credit for completing the training, and also will be enrolled for the chance to win a $50 gift card. There will be 55 winners from the gift card drawing.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke is funding the study (Grant #1F31NS124263-01), and Ph.D. candidate Kathryn A. Coxe is leading it. For additional information or questions, please contact Kathryn at:
coxe.6@osu.edu.
Click
here to participate in the study.
Joint Commission to Start 11-part Behavioral Healthcare Accreditation Webinar Series on Aug. 28
The Joint Commission will present an 11-part Behavioral Healthcare and Human Services Accreditation Webinar Series to help providers prepare their staffs to maintain compliance.
Session topics include information management, medication management, infection prevention and control, patient safety, environment of care, and more. The Joint Commission will present the series—which will be made available Aug. 28—on demand so that organization teams can view the webinars when it’s convenient for them.
Click
here to learn more, including information about special healthcare system discounts.
Center for Rural Opioid Prevention, Treatment & Recovery to Host Webinar Aug. 31
The Center for Rural Opioid Prevention, Treatment & Recovery (CROP+TR) will host a webinar later this month to review the prevalence of methamphetamine use and co-use with opioids, the effect of methamphetamine on the health of people with opioid use disorder, and potentially effective interventions for methamphetamine.
The webinar will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 31 at 4 p.m. ET. Click
here to register.
Reminder: NABH Denial-of-Care Portal is Open to Members
NABH’s Denial-of-Care Portal is a new resource for members to provide information about their experiences with managed care organizations that impose barriers to care through insurance-claim denials.
NABH’s Managed Care Committee worked for more than a year to develop the Denial-of-Care Portal as a way to collect specific data on insurers who deny care—often without regard for parity or the effects on patients.
This NABH member-only, survey-like tool allows users to add the name of a managed care organization, type of plan, level of care, type of care (mental health or substance use disorder), duration of approved treatment, duration of unapproved treatment, criteria used to deny a claim, and more.
The portal allows members to submit individual examples of claim denials or upload multiple entries via Excel. It also includes sections on appeals and physician participation. In time, the tool could be a valuable resource for the NABH team’s advocacy efforts.
Please e-mail
Emily Wilkins, NABH’s administrative coordinator, if you have questions about the portal.
Singer Judy Collins and Former NIMH Director Tom Insel, M.D. to Kick Off 2021 Annual Meeting
Join us at the NABH 2021 Annual Meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 6 to hear from award-winning singer, songwriter, and author Judy Collins. A strong mental health and suicide-prevention advocate, Ms. Collins wrote
Sanity and Grace in 2003 about her 33-year-old son’s death by suicide in 1992.
NABH is also pleased to welcome Thomas R. Insel, M.D., co-founder and president of Mindstrong Health and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) at the National Institutes of Mental Health.
If you have not done so yet, please
register for the Annual Meeting and
reserve your hotel room today. Our new hotel cut-off date is
Friday, Sept. 17. We look forward to seeing you in Washington!
Fact of the Week
Research shows Black youth younger than age 13 die by suicide at nearly twice the
rate of white kids, and, over time, their suicide rates have grown even as rates have decreased for white children.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.