Behavioral health providers Mindpath Health, Valera Health and Bloom Health Centers all have new CEOs. 

The shakeups in leadership — confirmed by Behavioral Health Business — come at a pivotal time for each of the three private equity-backed providers, which are emerging into a post-pandemic and post-federal public health emergency era. 

The coronavirus pandemic and official responses to it highlighted the need and the opportunity for additional investment in mental health services. It also set off a tsunami of telehealth use. Mental health companies and consumers have been especially keen to adopt the technology, reshaping the care delivery landscape for many.

The share of in-person appointments for psychologists and psychiatrists was significantly down in 2022 compared to 2020, according to a report by ZocDoc. And the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that the rate of telehealth visits for outpatient behavioral health is seven times that of all other outpatient mental health visits.

Mindpath Health transitions leaders following restructuring

Chris Brengard, CEO of Mindpath Health, has transitioned to the role of chairman of the board. He was appointed CEO in January 2021, succeeding Ken Kelly as the top executive of one of Mindpath’s predecessor companies: Sacramento, California-based Community Psychiatry. It became Mindpath Health after merging with Durham, North Carolina-based MindPath Care Centers in May 2021, creating a bi-costal company emphasizing telehealth.

Mindpath Health is backed by the Los Angeles private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners.

The company has appointed Stephen Farber to the CEO post. His previous roles include the CFO roles at Kindred Healthcare (now ScionHealth) and Tenet Healthcare and executive vice president of finance and strategy for Multiplan.

The company announced layoffs in January tied to an “organizational restructuring.” While details are sparse, Mindpath Health closed its office in Ohio while a company representative said the restructuring was not part of a larger strategic pivot.

The company lists 92 locations in seven states on its website.

Brengard disclosed on LinkedIn that his time as CEO ended in May.

Valera Health’s CEO transitions to another role in the company

Dr. Thomas Tsang, the co-founder and founding CEO of Valera Health, is now the company’s chief strategy officer. Craig Albright has taken on the CEO role, according to Tsang’s LinkedIn account.

Tsang transitioned so that he may “focus on what I love most, developing Valera’s clinical initiatives and strategic partnerships that expand access to mental health services for vulnerable populations,” he said.

He is also a member of the company’s board.

Albright previously held the role of CEO of Atlanta-based dental services organization Benevis. He was in that role for about two years. His work in health care extends more than 20 years.

“Craig will lead Valera Health as the new CEO, charged with scaling services that have already made Valera a provider of high-quality mental health services to a diverse community, including care for patients with moderate and severe mental illness,” Tsang said.

New York-based Valera Health raised a $44.5 million Series B investment round in October 2022. Heritage Group led the round. New investors Cigna Ventures and Horizon Healthcare Services participated. Existing investors Windham Ventures, AXA Venture Partners, Aquiline Technology Partners, Trinnovate Ventures (BCBS AZ), Figure Eight Investments, Watershed VC, and Alsora Capital also contributed to the round.

Since its earliest days, Valera Health has shifted from its original focus when it was founded in 2016 as a SaaS platform to enable collaborative care models to a comprehensive telehealth mental health provider and has grown from 6 employees to over 500, Tsang said.

Bloom Health Centers’ chief medical officer pulls double duty

Dr. Neel Nene became the CEO of Towson, Maryland-based Bloom Health Centers on Feb. 15. He concurrently holds the roles of chief medical officer and board member and succeeds Lorraine Riche as the company’s top executive.

Riche held the role of president during her time leading the company. That tenure ended with the appointment of Nene. She stayed on through April to assist in the transition. Today, she is the chief growth officer of a staffing organization called Talentcare.

“We made an organizational change that we believe was the next natural evolution of Bloom,” a representative of the company said. “We are a clinical organization. To support that we must be clinician-led.”

In March 2022, Psych Associates of Maryland acquired Arlington, Virginia-based Comprehensive Behavioral Health to create Bloom Health Centers. The company claims this merger created the largest in-network mental health provider in the Northern Virginia/Washington D.C. area.

It operates 12 locations in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. It employs 126 people, 98 of which are clinicians.

Chicago-based New Harbor Capital Management backs the company. It invested in Psych Associates of Maryland in July 2021. This investment in the company now known as Bloom Health Centers is New Harbor Capital’s follow-up to its first investment in mental health which was in Community Psychiatry, a predecessor organization for Mindpath.

Bloom Health Centers is seeking to expand transcranial magnetic stimulation and esketamine treatments to more of its locations. It also has plans to open locations in Winchester and Charlottesville, Virginia in July, the representative said.