A venture capital company (VC) is in many respects, a “Ponzi Scheme.” Such schemes lead victims to believe the profits are coming from some stable and legitimate business activity. In this case, stable and legitimate psychotherapy services. VCs are focused on making money for their investors; they are not invested in clinical excellence, values, or a cause. Those are just packaging. Their mission is not to enhance the bedrock of why psychotherapy works. VC investors NEED to succeed BIG. The mental health venture must do everything it can to double or triple their investment. Many of the startups in a VC’s portfolio will inevitably fail, under perform, and be sold.
There are 4 words professional psychotherapists need to think about.
“Venture Capital Psychotherapy Services”
Cutting past the fagazi, whazy and woozy, “Venture Capital” plus “Psychotherapy Services” is a toxic mix impossible to sustain.
A unicorn is VC company that achieves a valuation of $1 billion.
The billion of dollars and technology being offered by digital mental health “unicorns” are an extremely high risk investments that have a face and a shadow. The success of a digital outpatient mental health care company that depend entirely on whether or not private practice psychotherapist are willing to give up their existing contracts. For that they may increase their gross income while being paid less money per hour to see 30 to 50 patients per week, while submitting to AI enhanced electronic audits that monitor every detail of each practice. Also, the VC clinical policy will pressure patients to use their clinical guidelines, education and VC apps. VC psychotherapy service providers will be compared using statistical parameters in monthly reports for which psychotherapists may receive “coaching”, or may be rewarded with bonus or penalty points.
VC invests in business opportunities that are struggling financially or some special new idea that is not real. Similar the movie, “The Wolf of Wall Street”, the companies they create are not real but have high valuations. If they can sell their company for a profit on the basis of the perceived value (the highest valuation), the investors pocket that money, and move on to the next venture.
There is no longer any doubt that psychotherapy services save million of dollars even after psychotherapists are paid. Psychotherapists should carefully consider whether joining a billion dollar company is participation in a Ponzi’ Scheme that may fail to dramatically improve outcomes or reduce medical costs. A VC company that pays well initially could reduce psychotherapy fees, hire troops of behavioral health coaches, and medicate as many patients as possible.
Decades of research demonstrate that providing 10 to 14 appointments will significantly improve the symptoms for approximately 75% of psychotherapy patients.
Psychotherapists’ value is not only the millions of dollars their work can save in healthcare costs, it includes the value of the data that demonstrates effective care, which VC companies will leverage to control psychotherapy services to make more money, and sell to Healthplans and their partners. Psychotherapists should be paid more if they are expected to hire staff or reduce their case loads when they are given more tasks.
For more information see:
The Toxic Impact of Venture Capital on Psychotherapy