The Behavioral Health Tech (BHT) Conference just keeps getting bigger and better.
The Behavioral Health Tech (BHT) Conference just keeps getting bigger and better — and has quickly become the must-see / must-be-at for mental health (MH) tech and telehealth insights.
Held this year Nov. 5-7 in Phoenix, AZ, BHT “is the largest conference focused on expanding access to mental health and substance use care through technology, health equity and innovation.”
In addition, BHT “convenes health plans, employers, behavioral health providers, digital health companies, investors, and policy makers to connect for the purposes of advancing access to behavioral healthcare for all.”
This multi-stakeholder focus was evident not only across the conference, but within BHT’s more than 45 panel discussions. BHT’s more than 225 speakers include “experts, innovators, those with lived experiences, advocates, and industry disruptors.”
From this representation, many key conference themes have emerged. Many are expected: what’s next for mental health policy, value-based care and innovative payment models. Others have become more nuanced, including:
- health equity through the lens of behavioral health, neurodiversity, and the needs of younger populations;
- treatment innovation via not only technology and AI but psychedelic and mindfulness alternatives;
- a growing number of public-private partnerships sharpened by defining Whys;
- substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and recovery strengthened through peer support; and
- specialized care that requires includes safety, wellness, and workforce development frameworks.
While it’s impossible to summarize every session, these bullets emerged from panels that emphasized collaboration, funding, and meeting people where they are.
Panel Spotlight 1: Costly, Ineffective OCD Care Has Met Its Match — Through Gold-Standard, Specialty Telehealth Treatment With Significant Payer Savings
While 1 in 4 people will experience Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in their lifetimes, it can take more than a decade to receive an accurate diagnosis. In the meantime, people suffer co-occurring anxiety, depression and other symptoms that can leave them homebound while spending tens of thousands of dollars on the wrong treatment.
This panel focused on the partnerships of two distinct health organizations — HCSC and Cigna-subsidiary Evernorth Health Services — with NOCD, whose telehealth-based OCD specialty treatment and community-driven therapy approach are driving significant per-member per-month savings for health plans and rapid time-to-improvement times for members.
The panel included two CMOs of Behavioral Health, Frank Webster of HCSC, and Doug Nemecek; Jana Dost, also of Evernorth (National VP of Network Strategy and Providers Partnership); and CEO Stephen Smith, whose own OCD diagnosis led him to co-found NOCD.
Panel Spotlight 2: Federal Funding for Digital Behavioral Health: Strategies, Partnerships, and Real-World Wins
Every healthcare stakeholder recognizes the importance of partnership, in theory if not in practice. This includes nonprofits that rely on government funding such as Vibrant Health, a key partner in the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. On the BHT panel, Vibrant was represented by new CEO Cara McNulty, who emphasized one of her key messages — being fierce behind your Why — while emphasizing what that sometimes means: understanding what you do best and relying on partners to protect your resources, ability to scale, and get collaborative results.
Other panelists included: Jennifer Huberty, PhD, Fit Minded; Katie Rudek, Kooth Digital Health and Michael Milham, Child Mind Institute.
Panel Spotlight 3: Innovating Substance Use Disorder Treatment: New Approaches and Breakthroughs
This was the first of two panels that HealthLeaders moderated at the BHT conference. The SUD innovation discussion began with the dismal state of SUD treatment and how healthcare has failed to meet the needs of the population. It continued with better access; engagement; and care that is personalized, community-based, and peer-supported.
The panel included:
- payers: Brett Hart, VP-Behavioral Health and Mental Health Parity at Blue Cross Blue Shield Minnesota, and Stacie Andoniadis, SUD Manager at CareOregon
- providers: Mimi Winsberg, MD, CMO and co-founder of Brightside Health
- platforms: Chris Thompson, CEO of Sober Sidekick
The panelists described a kind of captive hope in serving and supporting those with SUD and the importance of meeting people where they are. That theme continued in the next panel . . .
Panel Spotlight 4: From Crisis to Wellness: How Specialized Care Can Drive Outcomes
Delivering care to everyone who needs it was a shared objective in this specialized care panel, also moderated by HealthLeaders. For example, panelist and CEO Colin LeClair noted that even though his organization, Connections Health Solutions, is focused on emergency psychiatric care, that CHS attempts to triage patients to care they don’t provide.
Care for people with MH/SUD conditions includes non-clinical needs and social drivers of health (SDoH). Brooke Parish, Executive Medical Director of Behavioral Health at HCSC, described programs where the health plan has provided camping equipment for patients who are unhoused and do not take advantage of or can’t access other housing options. Amy Hawthorne, Director of Mental Health & Wellness from Canyon Ranch also noted the importance and effectiveness of alternative treatments based on whole-person, even spiritually-based care.
The panel’s two other experts — AJ Patel, President & CEO of TeleMed2U, and Lorena Roth, Senior Director, National Mental Health and Wellness at Kaiser Permanente — put a spotlight on the how their organizations address one of healthcare’s biggest challenges, particularly in MH/SUD: workforce shortages and their impact.
With the largest turnout since Behavioral Health Tech launched, expect attendees to apply multiple takeaways from this year’s BHT panelists and for next year’s conference to attract even more leaders and innovators in the MH/SUD space.
Laura Beerman is a freelance writer for HealthLeaders.