Warshaw Burstein Hosts In-Person Behavioral Telehealth Panel with Columbia Business School

11/12/2022

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Warshaw Burstein, LLP, a full-service law firm in New York City, recently hosted Columbia Business School's first in-person event since the Covid-19 pandemic. The topic was behavior telehealth.

Murray Schwartz, Partner in the Corporate Group, selected the participants and moderated the November 10 panel, "The Reality of Stress and Mental Health and the Bright Horizon for Behavioral Telehealth."

The program panelists were:

• Ben Prince, CEO, Ethos Care
• Jamie Schwartz, LCSW-R, CASAC, Compliance Officer, Elev8 Centers, Addiction Recovery & Wellness Services
• Ariana Tadler, Founding and Managing Partner, Tadler Law LLP

The discussion covered a variety of issues in a robust give-and-take with the 50-person audience of attorneys, investors, mental health practitioners and other interested parties.

Topics included:

• Statistics on lack of access to mental health care;
• The range of ages affected by mental health challenges;
• The disparity among those with or without substantial resources in access to mental health care;
• How telehealth can fill those gaps;
• How telehealth removes much of the discomfort or stigma sometimes attached to those seeking mental health treatment;
• Addiction treatment;
• How long it takes to train a good therapist and how that differs in telehealth;
• What, if any, regulation exists around telehealth; and,
• Which business models are working – and not working – in the telehealth space.

Mr. Schwartz said, “Five years ago, there was a chronic shortage in mental health resources resulting in an average wait time to see a psychiatrist in the U.S. of 26 weeks. The advent of behavioral telehealth care, complemented by certain legislation in several states, and various structural operating changes, have enabled some companies in the U.S. to cut the time to one week. Unfortunately, there remains an average 26-week wait in most parts of the country.”

He continued, “While the global pandemic led to many significant changes in health care laws, including expanded access to mental health professionals for some, the more prominent outgrowths of the pandemic related to mental health are an increase in depression and anxiety in children and the elderly and a flowering of mental disorders arising from sadness, isolation, fear, anger, opioid addiction, alcoholism, gambling addiction, violence, and suicide.”

Warshaw Burstein, LLP is a full-service law firm in New York City which has distinguished itself through superior and cost-effective legal service and personalized client care and attention.

The panel was inspired by the firm’s work with two cutting-edge behavioral health care companies.