Staff Data Scientist

The therapy session is being monetized. Here is what clinicians need to know. Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN) co-founder and chair Linda Michaels joined hosts David Dayen and Matt Stoller on the Organized Money podcast to talk about what is really happening to the therapy profession in the United States, and why it matters far beyond the consulting room. The episode, titled "The Chatbot Will See You Now: Tech in Therapy," covers the full landscape: insurance companies that underpay therapists and obstruct access, venture capital-backed Practice Management Companies (PMCs) like Headway, Alma, Rula, and Grow Therapy that extract data and profit from therapist labor, and the push to replace human care with AI chatbots, all while obscuring what is actually being taken from patients and clinicians alike. What Therapy is, and what it is not. Linda grounded the conversation in what makes psychotherapy work, and why shortcuts fail. "Trust is core," she said. "Without it, therapy doesn't work. People go to therapy with their most vulnerable, perhaps embarrassing and shameful problems and parts of themselves. If there is no trust, there is no confidentiality, there is no privacy, people are not going to open up." When host Matt Stoller raised Mark Zuckerberg's claim that AI could serve as everyone's therapist, Linda was direct: "That's not what therapy is. Therapy is for people who have serious, complex problems, multiple problems, problems that maybe go back generations in their families that they cannot unwind or understand or change by themselves." The PMC model: what therapists are not being told. Linda drew on Psychotherapy Action Network's research survey of nearly 700 mental health professionals to describe how PMCs recruit therapists with promises of administrative relief and better pay, while obscuring the actual terms of the arrangement. Eighty-five percent of therapists using PMCs do not know who owns the company they work for. Most do not know what cut the PMC takes. What they are signing is, in effect, an Uber contract, in which the platform owns patient data and clinicians become 1099 contractors. "If the value proposition were explained honestly," Linda said, "you would hear: you are going to become a contractor to a company owned by the very insurance companies that are the bane of your existence, you will give up ownership of your patient records, and there is a 50-50 chance you will actually earn more money. How does that sound?" AI documentation tools and the recording of therapy sessions. Linda explained how PMCs use the threat of insurance clawbacks to push therapists toward AI documentation tools that record entire therapy sessions, generate transcripts, and feed that data to third-party vendors. Buried in terms of service are provisions allowing that data to be used for analytics, AI training, and, as Talkspace has stated directly in investor reports, to build proprietary large language models. Headway, one of the largest PMCs, is currently the subject of a class action lawsuit alleging the sharing of patient data with Google. Google Ventures is an owner of Headway. "This is all built on transcripts and recordings of what patients should believe are private conversations between them and their therapist," Linda said. The Illinois model: proof that advocacy works. The episode also covered Illinois House Bill 1085, passed in 2025 with significant advocacy support, including from Psychotherapy Action Network. The law raises reimbursement rates for therapists toward parity with medical and surgical rates, reduces administrative barriers for therapists joining insurance networks, and is projected to expand access to psychotherapy for 2.5 million people in Illinois. "If it happened in Illinois, it can happen elsewhere," Linda said. "We are working on a model bill based on the Illinois legislation that other states can use." This is the work. Support it. The fight Linda describes on Organized Money is exactly the fight Psychotherapy Action Network exists to wage. Psian stand against the commodification of care and the extraction of patient data for profit. Psian stand for therapists and patients who deserve better than what corporate medicine is offering them. Listen to the full episode onApple Podcasts,Spotify,YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How behavioral health teams guide members to care. May 13, 2026 Nearly a quarter of U.S. adults live with at least one mental health condition, and a growing number of people are seeking help. Yet even those with insurance can have trouble navigating care because they often aren't as familiar with their behavioral health benefits as they are with their medical benefits. Identifying in-network treatment and resources can be an overwhelming task, especially during a mental health dilemma. "They don't really know what their policies include," says behavioral health care coordinator Carmela Rupe. "I'm explaining the basics of insurance," she says, adding she often steers individual and family plan members toward in-network care and resources to help them find new providers and access covered in-person treatment centers to help control their conditions. Rupe is among teams of care coordinators at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico providing behavioral health education, guidance and resources to help members find the care they need. Licensed in behavioral health care, they assist members seeking treatment for conditions, including anxiety, depression, substance misuse and autism, and avoid scammers targeting vulnerable people. "An insurance company is not necessarily viewed as the primary resource for behavioral health information," says Scott Bender, BCBSNM's executive director for behavioral health operations. "Many people will go to the internet to do a search or ask their friends and family for references. But that's a service we provide specifically in behavioral health." Although insured adults are more likely to receive mental health care than those without coverage, they still had difficulty accessing services, according to KFF. The health care policy nonprofit found nearly 45% of insured adults with mental health concerns could not get the mental health treatment they thought they needed. Depending on the plan, member resources include digital behavioral health tools and access to virtual and in-person providers. In 2025, BCBSNM launched a digital mental health hub available on the member account portal to improve resource access. More than 35,000 members have used the hub to find providers and educational tools. BCBSNM also has invested in Headway, a technology-enabled platform that connects and expands access for members to a diverse, national network of licensed therapists and psychiatrists. Care coordinators can offer guidance to appropriate levels of care, no matter whether members already have a diagnosis or are seeking treatment for the first time. They may also collaborate with other teams to coordinate medical care and medication compliance. "Seeking care can be very confusing," says Dr. Ella Williams, senior executive medical director for behavioral health. "There's just such a lack of knowledge about what's available to them. We want to increase people's awareness about the types of treatment and care that's covered." Rupe often reaches out to members to better coordinate their care if they've had at least two inpatient treatment admissions a year. She also ensures members receive their prescribed medications to maintain their physical and mental health. "We're real people who have been trained as masters-level individual clinicians," she says. "Our ethics as clinicians guide us. We want to help members get what they need." That expertise builds credibility with members, says Amy Wiley, a behavioral health case management coordinator. "Some members have never navigated the systems that are available to them," says Wiley, who's helped many members new to seeking behavioral health care. "They're overwhelmed because they don't know what they have." She always tries to provide members with educational information to help increase awareness, ease frustration and build trust. "We try to match members with the services they need," Wiley says. "We are really lucky in that we can spend more time with members to really dive in, ask questions and help take some of the legwork out of helping them find resources."