Today, many people in the U.S. who are in need of mental health services face barriers to getting help as geographic, economic and racial disparities in access persist. In an effort to bridge that gap and deliver whole-person care, some companies like Concert Health are providing behavioral health services in the same place patients get routine medical care.
Founded in 2016, Concert has been expanding rapidly, and the San Diego-based behavioral health medical group announced Wednesday that it has raised $42 million in Series B financing, led by Define Ventures. It’s planning to use the funds to scale its services with clinician partners nationwide.
The company currently partners with more than 50 primary care, pediatric care and women’s health groups in 11 states to integrate mental healthcare, and said it plans to expand in Arkansas, Massachusetts and Washington this quarter.
The company’s Collaborative Care team-based model is central to its partnerships and approach to care delivery. The model recognizes the need to measure outcomes each month to hold the team and patients accountable; build a care plan that respects patients’ wishes; and create an integrated plan that supports both behavioral and physical health issues and is centered in primary care, said Spencer Hutchins, co-founder and CEO of Concert, in an email.
“Everyone deserves access to quality behavioral health services—getting the care they need, integrated with a provider they trust,” Hutchins said. “Concert exists to make that a reality. We’re building the country’s best behavioral health medical group anchored in the model of Collaborative Care.”
The company’s latest funding round follows a $14 million Series A round in January last year, bringing the total amount it has raised to $56 million. Existing investors Healthy Ventures, Vertical Venture Partners and Townhall Ventures contributed to the Series B financing, and two major health system partners, CommonSpirit Health and Advent Health, also made strategic investments in the company.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The money will be used to grow Concert’s clinical operations and recruitment, finance product and tech improvements like integrating Concert’s platform with its partners’ EHRs, and support efforts to work with payers to close coverage gaps, Hutchins said.
Concert provides behavioral health services for patients who have private and public insurance; 55% of the over 27,000 patients it has served to date have been insured by Medicaid or Medicare, according to the company. In addition to health systems, its partners include independent medical groups, federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics.
As health providers and patients seek more accessible behavioral health services, mental health is increasingly being tied to other healthcare through integrated medical practices and by other companies like Quartet.
Responding to demand, Concert’s existing partners want the company to scale what it’s doing to provide behavioral health services for patients across entire health systems, Hutchins said.
The company attributes much of that demand to its Collaborative Care model.
“We know Collaborative Care works, and we’re building an innovative team focused on providing quality, evidence-based care in a way that can change the industry and change how care is delivered nationally,” said Virna Little, co-founder and chief clinical officer of Concert Health, in an email. “I’m really excited to be able to bring such high-quality behavioral health services to people who need it so desperately across the country.”
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