In a market full of apps for texting health coaches or performing meditation exercises, few people can solve more acute mental health problems. Telemedicine startup Valera Health is seeking to change this situation.
This company based in New York Recently completed a round of financing of 15 million US dollars, Led by Windham Venture Partners. It provides virtual mental health services for various diseases, including depression, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Valera purchases insurance for its visits, and nearly one-third of its patients receive insurance through the administered Medicaid program.
Founder and CEO Dr. Thomas Tsang has two goals for the company: to become the first-choice resource for patients with severe mental illness and to reach underserved communities.
“Where they go to see a doctor, we want to go there too,” he said.
Tsang has experience in this area. Early in his career, he served as the Chief Marketing Officer of Charles B. Wang Community Health Center, a federally certified health center serving one of the Asian communities in New York.
He has to deal with multiple challenges, including the health center has only one bilingual psychiatrist and serves more than 60,000 Cantonese or Mandarin speaking patients at the same time. To solve this problem, they made the psychiatrist become a consulting member of the primary care team.
Valera originally started as a technology platform for behavioral health coordination, but the company expanded last year to add telemedicine services during the pandemic. Patients are first screened by health coaches, and their care is managed by a team of therapists, nurse practitioners, case managers, and psychiatrists.
As investors invest more and more money in the field of mental health, few startups provide care for serious mental health conditions. To do this, Tsang stated that it is important to hire providers with the right skills and experience, and have the infrastructure to provide high-quality care.
“When you see companies like Talkspace and other companies, they usually treat very mild patients,” he said. “The moderate and severe groups don’t have many resources or access rights.”
Importantly, the company’s suppliers also speak multiple languages, and a large portion of its suppliers identify with ethnic minorities or the LGBTQ community.
The company is currently developing health programs in New York, New Jersey, and Arizona, covering the lives of more than 12 million people. For example, it is working with frontline workers in New York City who need quick access to mental health services.
The startup is also establishing a partnership with the health system, and Washington-based MultiCare Health System has joined its latest round of investment.
Looking ahead, Valera plans to expand to other states next year and sign more value-based contracts with health plans. The startup is also hiring for many positions in the business and clinical aspects.
Photo Credit: Olga Strelnikova, Getty Images
