Mental Health Practitioners
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Industry Structure, How Firms Opertate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Quarterly Insight, Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 26,800 mental health practitioners in the US diagnose and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders and problems due to mental illness, alcohol and substance abuse, physical and emotional trauma, or stress. Practitioners include psychologists, counselors, therapists, social workers, and nurses. Practitioners may operate private or group practices or work within third-party facilities, such as hospitals, medical centers, substance abuse treatment centers, hospitals, and colleges.
Dependence on Third-Party Payers
Mental health practitioners are highly dependent on government programs and third-party insurers to pay for services.
Battling The Stigma
The stigma associated with mental health problems often discourages individuals from seeking help and can delay treatment.
Industry size & Structure
The average mental health practitioner operates out of a single location, employs about 4-5 workers, and generates $435,000 annually.
- The mental health practitioner industry consists of about 26,800 establishments that employ about 126,000 workers and generate $12 billion annually.
- The industry is highly fragmented; the top 50 companies account for 11% of industry revenue.
- The industry does not include psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and psychotherapists having the degree of MD (Doctor of Medicine) or DO (Doctor of Osteopathy).
Industry Forecast
Mental Health Practitioners Industry Growth
Source: Vertical IQ and Inforum
Coronavirus Update
Apr 25, 2022 - Greater Need For Services may Boost Availability
- Demand for mental health treatment increased in 2021, according to the American Psychological Association (APA). Providers are stretched thin, waitlists are growing, and people are reaching out for myriad problems, APA CEO Arthur Evans said, but anxiety, depression and other trauma-related disorders were at the top. There aren't enough treatment resources available, Evans noted, but he said that there is a silver lining: "People are paying more attention to mental health," Evans said, and he hopes this greater awareness of mental health issues will translate to more resources and investments.
- The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will seek to sustain and expand access to telemedicine after the federal government declares the COVID-19 public health emergency to be over, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in late March. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services significantly relaxed restrictions on telemedicine during the pandemic. Beneficiaries can now use telehealth in their homes because authorities suspended a requirement that they travel to rural health facilities to speak with providers in remote locations for most services. Medicare also expanded the number of allowable telehealth services by 146 and permitted providers to bill the same as for in-person visits.
- The mental health consequences of the pandemic will continue during the next state of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Elizabeth Stuart, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Support must continue for individuals who may experience mental health challenges after being infected with COVID, children and adults who lost a loved one to COVID, and those who experienced financial or other stresses during the pandemic.
- The federal government awarded over $8 billion in COVID-19 relief funding for behavioral health as of November 2021. Over 97% of this funding was provided to states and other recipients through six programs: one Federal Emergency Management Agency program, and five Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) programs. Funding recipients in four states and Washington, DC, reported varying ways that they were using, or planned to use, relief funds to reach higher-risk populations. Officials in one state, for example, said they planned to use some mental health block grant funds to assist children and adolescents in the child protective services system. SAMHSA officials said that it would take time to determine who was served by programs that received federal relief funding but said that it was important to examine grantee data to determine whether target populations were reached and identify any coverage gaps.
- Many experts say that telehealth will likely become a permanent fixture in the healthcare landscape. “Research on telehealth use conducted during the pandemic showed that there was a 1400-percent increase in substance use care in telehealth,” said Dr. Lawrence Weinstein, chief medical officer at American Addiction Centers. Global venture capital funding for digital health companies hit a record $15 billion in the first half of 2021, according to a report by Mercom Capital Group.
- Mental health visits by new mothers were 30% higher during the COVID-19 pandemic than before the pandemic, particularly for those within the first 3 months after giving birth, according to research results published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Postpartum mental illness affects as many as 1 in 5 mothers and can have long-term effects on children and families if it becomes chronic. Mental health visits to both family physicians and psychiatrists were higher than before the pandemic, especially among parents with anxiety, depression, and alcohol and substance use disorders.
- Some industry experts are concerned that the pandemic-driven increase in availability of telehealth services will disproportionately benefit large multistate healthcare providers at the expense of small, local organizations. The head of Rimrock, Montana’s largest behavioral health provider, worries that an influx of out-of-state providers that don't take Medicaid patients could lead to the loss of a significant number of its privately insured patients. Rimrock patients with private insurance subsidize patients who are on Medicaid, CEO Lenette Kosovich said. The difference in insurance reimbursement rates between the two is so great that the loss of those privately insured patients would hamper Rimrock’s operations. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana spokesperson John Doran said that he shares Kosovich’s concerns that local providers could suffer or be driven out of business, particularly in smaller states. “The future of medicine has to include connecting a Montana patient to a Montana provider,” Doran said.
- A study published in the Journal of Public Health found that the rates of depression (39%), anxiety (42%) and psychological distress (39%) were more than double the rates from before the pandemic. Depression, anxiety, and psychological distress burden differed significantly based on race, ethnicity, age, having children at home, employment as a health care worker, annual household income, and area of residence, according to the study. Males were more likely to have depression, and females were more likely to have anxiety symptoms.
- The $2 trillion CARES Act passed in late March 2020 included a repeal of the Medicare requirement that only allows a health care professional to see a patient via telemedicine if they have previously seen that patient within the past three years. CARES allows the sharing of substance use disorder records with health care professionals. It also suspends the Medicare sequestration, which requires Medicare providers to reduce costs by 2%, through December 2020.
- Employment at offices of mental health practitioners increased 14.9% year over year in February, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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