To help address the shortage of mental health services available to patients across the country, a Chicago startup is offering a virtual mental health service that healthcare providers can integrate directly into their own facilities.
Regroup, which launched in 2011, provides healthcare institutions with the software and equipment to access their on-staff clinicians remotely. The model allows patients to receive mental health services at the same place they already go to see their primary care doctor, said Regroup Founder and CEO David Cohn.
“People with mental health issues don’t necessarily want to spend the time or have the ability to self-navigate some of the solutions out there," Cohn said. "But if you go to where they already go see the doctor, it’s a lot easier for them to engage with it and benefit from it."
And since the majority of rural areas do not have a psychiatrist and nearly half of them don’t have a psychologist, according to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, offering virtual services helps address those shortages.
"We’re in a unique position to improve upon what’s available, given how difficult it is to bring in three-dimensional resources, especially in rural areas or correctional settings," Cohn said. "We can pull clinicians from the whole country to make the best clinical match with that patient population, which means much better care."
Regroup, which is also one of Chicago Inno’s 2018 50 on Fire honorees, previously offered their services directly to patients so that they could access clinicians from home, but Cohn said they have shifted away to more of a B2B model and that the majority of Regroup's services are now administered in a healthcare facility.
The startup, which offers their services in more than 120 care sites in 20 states, has treated “well over” 100,000 people and are averaging about 10,000 sessions per month, Cohn said. Regroup employs about 100 clinicians, who work on either a 1099 or W2 basis. Clinicians can treat a variety of mental health conditions, though Regroup most commonly sees patients suffering with depression and anxiety, Cohn said.
The startup employs 35 people in its Ravenswood headquarters, and has nearly $14 million in venture capital funding from investors like Chicago’s Hyde Park Angels and OSF Ventures, the venture arm of OSF HealthCare in Peoria Heights, Ill., according to Crunchbase.
Regroup was formerly known as Regroup Therapy until it dropped the latter half of its name. Though Regroup still provides talk therapy, Cohn said the company is working to enhance and grow its data business as well. Regroup is also working to recruit more clinicians over the next year so that it can expand into more healthcare facilities.
“There’s a tremendous need for these services, and we’re making a little dent in it, but we want to make it much bigger and we intend to keep moving in that direction,” Cohn said. “You’re going to see us innovate.”
