Investors

Long before WebMD or Google, 1-800-Therapist pioneered the field of enabling consumers to easily find and communicate with behavioral health providers. The motivating force behind relaunching 1-800-Therapist is deeply personal to its founders; Donald Hackett, Louis Scalpati and Dr. Russell Ricci. 

Since the lifetime prevalence rate for behavioral health issues is an astonishing 57.4 percent….more than every 1 in 2 Americans.  Behavioral health may impact someone you love or close to you.

Having first met in 1990, while launching a hospital communications network with VHA Member hospitals and building Physician Computer Network, Don, Lou and Russ began researching how consumers, patients and providers could reduce costs, increase productivity and empower healthier lifestyles.

Having spent over 20 years working with physicians, therapist and scientists within the behavioral health, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, the team decided now was the time to take action.  With two inflection points simultaneously impacting the behavioral health industry (the Mental Health Parity Act and the migration away from yellow page book advertising), the team invested their own capital to relaunch the most trusted brand with behavioral health; 1-800-Therapist.

Since 1994, over one-million consumers have connected with various behavioral health providers because of 1-800-Therapist.  Our nationally recognized brand is known for enabling consumers to easily find and speak with therapist in their local markets.  The Company believes its unique economic opportunity spans a shift in marketing budgets and reengineering appointment work-flow processes.

  • The Mental Health Parity law became effective on June 1, 2010, adding approximately 15 million mental health insurance beneficiaries. These new beneficiaries, as well as the expanded benefits for the 100 million existing beneficiaries, should significantly increase the number of appointments scheduled with behavioral health providers each year.  Each year, approximately two billion patient-provider appointments are scheduled in America, requiring over 300 million hours of staff time, at an annual cost of $7 billion.  Each month, thirty million consumers search online for provider information, with most scheduling an appointment within the next month.
  • The advertising budget shift from yellow page books to of online search: As more consumers replace yellow page books with Internet searches to locate health providers, health care provider advertisers are migrating advertising budgets to interactive media at 15% CAGR.  Health care provider advertisers represent approximately 20% of total yellow page advertising spend, $2 billion, with physicians and hospitals ranking #2 and #10 respectively.

What we believe:

“As we enter the next phase of the eHealth market evolution, many have asked us how we define the eHealth 3.0 market evolution. It’s simple; the deployment of practical technology solutions that solve real-word problems for patients, doctors, pharmacists, therapists and nurses.  Yes, enabling healthcare professionals to better interoperate with their patients, and to communicate, share and to learn from each other.  We believe better information management and enhanced communications leads to improved health outcomes!

We believe eHealth 3.0 winners will be companies that leverage technology as a competitive advantage to create measurable value for their stakeholders and shareholders alike.” 

Current Investors:

  • Hackett Ventures, LLC
  • Scalpati Holdings
  • Strategic Angel investors

If you have any questions, please contact:  don@patientConversation.com