Busy doctors can miss mental health crises. Can this San Diego startup help?
San Diego Union-TribuneMar 12, 2019
The result is a large population of sick, yet untreated, people in America. Now, a new startup in
The company, called
As co-founder and former CEO of Reflexion, Hutchins raised nearly
Hutchins left Reflexion in 2015 and started working on the concept for
The problem
The Affordable Care Act changed a lot of things about the health care system, one of which was a shift toward the "pay for performance" model. The idea here is that doctors should get paid based on patient outcomes instead of process. This shift spurred a slew of data collection efforts because doctors and clinics needed to provide evidence of their success.
One such effort was the suggestion that doctors regularly screen their patients for mental health issues like anxiety or depression. When patients go in for their annual check-up, for example, they might be asked to take a questionnaire that gauges their risk for mental health issues.
"If you go to Kaiser or Sharp here in
Dr.
"Mental health issues are some of the most underrecognized in primary care," Singh said. "I'm not talking about the person crying in your office because a loved one has passed away, or because they've lost a job. Anyone can pick that up. But the vast majority of patients with mental illness are high functioning, so it's difficult to recognize them."
In
When doctors do recognize mental health issues, Singh said the first course of action is usually prescription medication. It's often effective and it only takes a few minutes to write a prescription and get the patient on their way.
"But not every condition can be treated with a tablet, and there are other techniques that could help empower the patient to feel better," Singh said.
Sometimes, a doctor might know a psychiatrist to whom they can refer the patient. The process is burdensome and time-consuming, Singh said, requiring multiple phone calls from the doctors themselves and triage nurses. And in the end, the onus is on the patient to follow through to schedule an appointment with the psychiatrist, and often the patient bows out.
How Concert bridges the gap
Unfortunately, behavioral health has long been separated from primary care, so there isn't much infrastructure connecting psychiatrists to medical doctors. But collaborating is in the patient's best interest, according to several studies. That's why in 2018 a new Medicare reimbursement code was created to help doctors get paid for coordinating mental health treatments with therapists, psychiatrists, and case managers. This means doctors can get paid for their time getting patients in the right hands. But that doesn't solve the problem that doctors are always short on time.
All doctors have to do is connect the patient with
Traction so far
"It's always hard for an investor to find a company where the team is good, the opportunity is good, and the timing is right," Bloom said. "Capturing this new Medicare billing code is a really big deal. (
brittany.meiling@sduniontribune.com 619-293-1286 Twitter: @BrittanyMeiling
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