Stephanie Isom, Senior firsthand Guide (Peer Recovery Specialist) at firsthand, has been named a 2024 Frontline Honors honoree by Behavioral Health Business. To become a Frontline honoree, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be: Behavioral Health Business recently caught up with Isom to discuss their time in the behavioral health industry. […]
Tera Howard, Senior Health Guide (Nurse Practitioner) at firsthand, has been named a 2024 Frontline Honors honoree by Behavioral Health Business. To become a Frontline honoree, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be: Behavioral Health Business recently caught up with Howard to discuss their time in the behavioral health industry. BHB: […]
The venture capital-backed, serious mental illness-focused startup firsthand has laid off most of its staff in five states. Company founder and CEO Samir Malik declined to specify the scale or the impetus of the layoffs. However, sources tell Behavioral Health Business that the company lost a UnitedHealthcare Medicaid contract that supported a major portion of […]
The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you by Behavioral Health Business, a WTWH Media health care brand. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of behavioral health, home health, hospice, senior housing and skilled nursing care. To see this year’s Future Leaders, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/. Bonnie […]
Once sidelined as a digital-only contender, venture capital is becoming a more mature player in the behavioral health arena. And the numbers are starting to tell the tale. In the first quarter of the year, venture capital firms invested $350 million in the behavioral health sector, according to M&A advisory firm Mertz Taggart. Similar quarterly […]
While private equity investors continue to look for new opportunities in behavioral health, there is one area that is still relatively uncharted: serious mental illness (SMI) care. Caring for the SMI population can be very challenging and requires a multipronged approach, as well as a robust patient engagement plan. Due to these challenges, SMI care […]
2023 has been a tumultuous year for the behavioral health space. Macroeconomic headwinds, including rising interest rates plus unrest in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, has slowed dealmaking. Additionally, many providers have struggled to raise more capital as investors tighten their purse strings. At least two major companies in behavioral health care have filed […]
Samir Malik, the CEO of firsthand, and Marie Hannah, a recovery peer for the company based in Nashville, know that those in the greatest need of behavioral health treatment are often the hardest to reach. The New York City-based startup uses a field-work-heavy approach to peer support work as part of a value-based care partnership […]
The 1st episode of the Behavioral Health Business Perspectives podcast is now available! For this episode of BHB Perspectives, we caught up with Samir Malik, the CEO of firsthand, and Marie Hannah, one of the company’s peers. During the conversation, Malik and Hannah discussed the value of peer-support models, firsthand’s momentum and more. Listen to […]
Years into a national behavioral health workforce shortage, many provider organizations are now seeking to leverage peer specialists. Advocates argue that peers could be a crucial part of expanding behavioral health access and supporting patients holistically in their recovery. Yet reimbursement challenges and varying state licensure requirements have historically created barriers for providers utilizing the […]
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