MOUNT LAUREL, NJ – Sept. 6, 2023 — Great Place To Work® and Fortune magazine have selected Array Behavioral Care for the 2023 Fortune Best Workplaces in Health Care™ List. This is Array’s first time being named to this prestigious list. Earning a spot means that Array is one of the best companies to work for in the country.  

The Best Workplaces in Health Care award is based on analysis of survey responses from over 208,000 employees from Great Place To Work Certified™ companies in the health care industry.  

“Array is a clinician-centric organization, and people are at the heart of everything we do in succeeding in our mission of transforming access to behavioral care services” says Kelly Lewis, Chief People Officer. “It’s important for us as an organization to ensure that employees are first caring for themselves in order to have the capacity to care for others, so we have built a healthy work culture that is weaved throughout our mission and values, our mental health and physical wellness programs, our training and development structure, and so forth. It is such an honor to be named a Best Workplace in Health Care among our peers.” 

The Best Workplaces in Health Care list is highly competitive. Great Place To Work, the global authority on workplace culture, determines its lists using its proprietary For All™ Methodology to evaluate and certify thousands of organizations in America’s largest ongoing annual workforce study, based on over 1.3 million survey responses and data from companies representing more than 7.5 million employees this year alone.  

Survey responses reflect a comprehensive picture of the workplace experience. Honorees were selected based on their ability to offer positive outcomes for employees regardless of job role, race, gender, sexual orientation, work status, or other demographic identifier.  

“Congratulations to the Best Workplaces in Health Care,” says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work. “These companies know that it isn’t the industry — but the company — that determines the employee experience. By putting people first, they are reaping the rewards: lower labor costs, higher standards of care, and happier employees.” 

“Fortune congratulates the Best Workplaces in Health Care,” says Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell. “Creating a vibrant workplace culture that draws the best talent in health care is vital for the success of the leaders in this highly competitive industry. It is also what’s needed to ignite innovation and deliver best-in-class performance.” 

This year, Array has been awarded a Great Place to Work®, A Top Places to Work® by Ragan Communications, named among Best Virtual Therapy Companies by Verywell mind, and received Mental Health America’s prestigious Silver Bell Seal for Workplace Mental Health. Two of its leaders, Chief People Officer Kelly Lewis and Medical Director of Engagement, Dr. Jamie Evans, were both named Top Women in Wellness and HR by Ragan. 

About Array 

Array Behavioral Care is the nation's leading clinician-centric virtual psychiatry and therapy practice with a mission to transform access to quality, timely behavioral health care. Array offers telepsychiatry solutions and services across the continuum of care, from hospital to home, through its three flexible delivery models. For more than 20 years, Array has partnered with hundreds of hospitals and health systems, community health care organizations and payers of all sizes to expand access to care and improve outcomes for underserved individuals, facilities, and communities. As an industry pioneer and established thought leader, Array has helped shape the field, define the standard of care and advocate for improved telepsychiatry-friendly regulations. To learn more, visit www.arraybc.com. 

About the Fortune Best Workplaces in Health Care List 

Great Place To Work selected the 2023 Fortune Best Workplaces in Health Care by gathering and analyzing confidential survey responses from more than 208,000 employees at Great Place To Work Certified organizations in the health care industry. Company rankings are derived from 60 employee experience questions within the Great Place To Work Trust Index™ Survey. Great Place To Work determines its lists using its proprietary For All™ Methodology to evaluate and certify thousands of organizations in America’s largest ongoing annual workforce study. In the last year, 1.3 million survey responses were received and data from companies representing more than 7.5 million employees, this year alone. Read the full methodology. 

To get on this list next year, start here.  

About Great Place To Work
As the global authority on workplace culture, Great Place To Work brings 30 years of groundbreaking research and data to help every place become a great place to work for all. Its proprietary platform and For All™ Model helps companies evaluate the experience of every employee, with exemplary workplaces becoming Great Place To Work Certified or receiving recognition on a coveted Best Workplaces™ List.  

Follow Great Place To Work on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram or visit greatplacetowork.com and sign up for the newsletter to learn more. 

About Fortune
The Fortune mission is to change the world by making business better. We achieve that by providing trusted information, telling great stories, and building world-class communities. We measure performance by rigorous benchmarks. And we hold companies accountable. Our goal is to make Fortune a force for good through its second century and beyond. For more information, visit www.fortune.com. 

In July, Array recognizes BIPOC Mental Health Month which was formally initiated in 2008 to bring awareness to the mental health needs and unique struggles of racialized ethnic communities (I.e., those culturally identifying as Black, Indigenous/American Indian/Alaska Native, Latino/Hispanic, and Asian American/Pacific Islander). We want to ensure that no individuals or groups feel marginalized when it comes to accessing mental health care. This month is meant to highlight ways to support and provide resources for a growing population of BIPOC individuals in the US. Array will be sharing information and resources on this topic throughout the month.

Given the theme of the month and Array’s commitment to continuously work towards being an inclusive, anti-racist, multicultural and just organization, Array also wants to address the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling which restricts the consideration of race and ethnicity in higher education admissions.

Array stands with professional organizations including the APA, AACAP and AMA in our stance that this decision poses a threat to diversity within the mental health care field, which could consequently limit access to appropriate care for individuals in BIPOC communities across the country.

Race-conscious admissions policies are designed to address structural and systemic barriers that hinder access to higher education for underrepresented students. Research shows that lack of educational attainment beyond high school can lead to greater socioeconomic challenges that perpetuate health inequities in racialized ethnic groups. Lack of representation within healthcare fields also has negative physical and mental health impacts on minoritized populations. Array believes that a diverse mental health workforce is critical to providing quality mental healthcare for all and addressing the mental health inequities that minoritized individuals experience.

As we process these recent policy decisions and their long-term impacts, we encourage Array team members to first and foremost take care of their own mental health and continue to educate themselves on cultural competency and the mental health of BIPOC communities.

We are thankful to our Array team members for their daily hard work and dedication to help increase access to high quality mental health care.

Array strongly opposes all legislative and other governmental attempts to limit access to gender-affirming support and care for transgender and gender diverse youth, or to sanction or criminalize the actions of physicians and other clinicians who provide them. We stand with organizations including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Medical Association in support of access to affirming and supportive treatment for transgender and gender diverse youth and their families, including appropriate mental health services, and when indicated puberty suppression and medical transition support.

Research shows that foregoing gender-affirming care can have tragic consequences as transgender youth experience disproportionate levels of violence and bullying and are less likely to feel safe at school than cisgender peers (Day et al., 2018).

Access to gender-affirming care positively impacts the mental health of transgender youth and lowers their risk of depression and suicide (Bauer et al., 2015). Transgender youth who have access to gender-affirming medical care experience improvements in mental health and often show mental health comparable to their cisgender peers (Toomey et al., 2022).

MOUNT LAUREL, NJ, May. 22, 2023 — Array Behavioral Care is proud to be Certified™ for Mental Health’s America’s (MHA) Silver Bell Seal for Workplace Mental Health.  

This national recognition is awarded to employers who are truly committed to creating mentally healthy workplaces and take a holistic approach to evaluating employer’s best practices in a variety of different competencies. Only 13% of all workplaces who applied for this certification qualified for this honor.  

As a Bell Seal recipient, Array joins a community of leaders who transform the workplace environment into a more supportive and healthier culture where employees can thrive.  

"At Array, we live by our core values of being an inclusive, supportive, collaborative, wise and solutions-oriented organization. Receiving this recognition is truly an honor, and one we don’t take for granted” said Kelly Lewis, Chief People Officer of Array Behavioral Care. “We recognize that an investment in employee mental health is an investment in the organization’s financial, social, and emotional health, and that’s truly at the heart of everything we do.” 

Array continuously works to enhance its culture and offer multi-faceted wellness programs for its administrative and clinical team members. Over the past year, we’ve offered a more robust Employee Assistance Program, increased efforts to support professional development, launched our corporate wellness program with Peloton® and have continued to celebrate our dynamic and culturally diverse teams through various Affinity group initiatives. There’s a little something for everyone and we want to make sure everyone feels supported, no matter what their role here within our organization. 

We're Hiring!

Looking to grow your career at a company that puts its people first? Visit our professional careers page on our website here.  

About Array Behavioral Care 

Array Behavioral Care is the nation's leading clinician-centric virtual psychiatry and therapy practice with a mission to transform access to quality, timely behavioral health care. Array offers telepsychiatry solutions and services across the continuum of care, from hospital to home, through its three flexible delivery models. For more than 20 years, Array has partnered with hundreds of hospitals and health systems, community health care organizations and payers of all sizes to expand access to care and improve outcomes for underserved individuals, facilities, and communities. As an industry pioneer and established thought leader, Array has helped shape the field, define the standard of care and advocate for improved telepsychiatry-friendly regulations. To learn more, visit www.arraybc.com. 

Telemedicine Prescribing of Controlled Substances When the Practitioner and the Patient Have Not Had a Prior In-Person Medical Evaluation (Docket No. DEA-407)

We at Array Behavioral Care applaud the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for its work in recognizing the importance of telehealth and the value it has been able to provide patients before COVID-19, during the pandemic, and for years to come. As a telemental health organization that provides telepsychiatry services across the care continuum from hospitals to homes, we have seen the positive impacts that the relaxed pandemic telehealth regulations have had for patients across the country.

As you and our colleagues at DEA are aware from our prior interactions on this topic, members of our practice have been conducting telepsychiatry since 1999, and our 50-state experience before and during the pandemic, has proven to us that safe and effective prescribing of certain controlled substances via telemedicine is both possible and essential.

Our perspective is that of a virtual psychiatry and therapy practice, and our comments reflect that emphasis.

While we appreciate the DEA’s work on rules to control against diversion and to protect public health, we are concerned with the timeline to finalize and implement the proposed rules. To ensure practitioners and organizations fully understand the new process and can make any necessary operational changes, we urge the DEA to extend the PHE flexibilities at least until the rule is finalized and implementable.

With that being said, here is a summary of our recommended changes:

1. Extend the window between a new initial telemedicine prescription and an in-person examination from 30 days to 90 days
2. Remove the requirement that telemedicine prescribers be DEA registered in the state where they are physically located (unless prescribing for patients in that state)
3. Enable only schedule IIN stimulants (i.e., Adderall, Dexedrine, Desoxyn, Ritalin) to be prescribed after an initial telemedicine encounter in the same way as currently proposed for schedules III-V
4. Exclude patients who have been receiving a schedule III-V controlled substance and children and adolescents who have been receiving a schedule II stimulant during the PHE from the requirement to obtain an in-person examination if the prescription was initiated prior to February 7, 2023
5. Clarify that the “Telemedicine referral” documentation needs to reflect the name, NPI, and findings of the in- person examination, but not a specific name or NPI of the telemedicine practitioner receiving the referral
6. Create viable mechanisms for telemedicine prescribers who do not see patients in-person to obtain DEA registration by unlinking the address used on the application from the idea of that address being a practice location.
   a. Decoupling the act of writing a prescription from the act of storing, dispensing, administering, or maintaining a drug would be helpful in this regard
   b. It would also reduce diversion risk by limiting sites storing drugs and reduce the burden of DEA investigators with certain site inspections

1. 1306.31(4)(2)

While we appreciate that the DEA believes that prescribing schedule III-V controlled substances can occur after an initial evaluation and assessment via audio/video visual means, we do question why it is limited to 30 days. The challenge that may happen for patients and prescribers is that it may take more than 30 days, (e.g., for certain behavioral health conditions) to ensure that a medication is working and some adjustments in the dosage and medication may be needed. Under this rule, the limitation of prescribing to 30 days may put prescribers at risk from a standard of care and not provide proper treatment for the patient, in which they have a duty of care for those patients as they have established a proper physician-patient relationship (via telemedicine).

Furthermore, and possibly more importantly, not all patients may have an immediate local in-person provider or PCP to see within those 30 days. This can be due to a lack of schedule availability or unwillingness to take on new patients by that in-person provider. As a result, this “initial prescription” may not be helpful to the patient in the long-term if the treatment cannot continue due to this requirement. It also adds undue burden on already overstretched primary care providers.

Additionally, if a patient does not have an in-person provider, the proposed 30-day timeframe to comply with an in- person visit may inadvertently create situations for more waste and abuse. There is risk of increased unnecessary medical costs for these patients trying to comply with the new rules only to end up going back to the telehealth prescriber to continue a prescription already written based on the initial telehealth visit.

The example we present is a patient that seeks out a psychiatrist for mental health treatment via telehealth and receives a 30-day initial prescription for a schedule IV anti-anxiety medication after the evaluation and assessment. According to the proposed rule, to continue to prescribe, the patient must go back to their PCP solely to have an “in-person visit” to complete a telemedicine referral form. It can be assumed then that the PCP will submit a bill for those services to the patient or insurance payer, or possibly in some cases, may decline to do this because no immediate reason for the medical visit is necessary. As a result, this may cause financial waste and time taken away from the PCP to care for any patients that may have more immediate needs.

We recommend extending the time period for an initial schedule III-V prescription to 90 days.

2. 1306.31(a)(3)(i)

Per the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), practitioners prescribing controlled substances to patients via telemedicine must hold a DEA registration in the state where the patient is located. There has been no requirement that the practitioner must also hold a DEA registration in the state where they are physically located. However, under proposed 1306.31(a)(3)(i), practitioners would need to maintain a DEA registration both in the state where the patient is located and where the practitioner is located. This requirement would be burdensome and wasteful to telemedicine practitioners who do not practice or prescribe in the state where they reside.

We recommend removing the requirement that practitioners maintain a DEA in their home state, unless they are prescribing in that state, but maintaining the requirement that a DEA registration be required in the patient’s state. Maintaining a DEA registration in the state where the patient is located is a standard practice within the telemedicine industry. However, requiring practitioners who do not prescribe to any patients in their home state to maintain a DEA registration would be a significant shift from the previously maintained requirement.

3. 1306.31(4)(c)(1)

We acknowledge that schedule II substances may create a risk to public health and safety if not monitored and dispensed in a medically appropriate manner. But we do want to point out that there are several safeguards already in place within the other aspects of the proposed rule (e.g., qualified telemedicine referral) and through other mechanisms to monitor and enforce that prescribing is done in a safe manner.

First, we believe that the ones most affected by this strict in-person requirement will be those patient populations that include minors under the age of 18, and those in areas where there is a shortage of mental health providers who have the expertise and ability to treat these patients.

From a clinical perspective, patients who may require schedule IIN prescriptions to treat conditions such as ADHD can be safely treated via telehealth. It has been accepted within the medical community and through state medical practice acts or legislative statutes that an audio/visual synchronous visit can be just as effective and meets the standard of care as it would have been if performed in-person. This is because the symptoms of these conditions (e.g., ADHD) are neurological and cannot always be visibly seen through a physical examination. Furthermore, professional standards of care have already been established to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place. National organizations like the American Psychiatric Association (APA), American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), and the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) have published guidelines that detail the best practices a mental health provider should take to appropriately diagnose and prescribe via telemedicine (i.e., verify the identity of the patient, collect collateral, obtain parental consent for minors, etc.)

Additionally, other safeguards already in place that would allow for these telehealth visits to occur safely include: 1) all 50 states require providers as part of their licensure obligations to review PDMP databases for any potential overprescribing or diversion; 2) pharmacists also have the ability to provide oversight and discretion when these prescriptions are dispensed and picked up to ensure that the prescription was medically appropriate and also validate the individual picking up the prescription; and 3) healthcare providers are subject to civil and criminal sanctions and disciplinary actions from their state licensing boards, state regulatory and law enforcements agencies, and the DEA.

Therefore, while we would recommend and strongly encourage that prescribing of Schedule II controlled substances could occur via telehealth, if the DEA strongly believes that there should be additional guardrails in place, we recommend that schedule IIN substances (i.e., Adderall, Dexedrine, Desoxyn, Ritalin) should be exempted from this initial in-person requirement, and that they should be treated in the same way as Schedules III-V under these new regulations.

4. 1300.04(o)

Given the length of the public health emergency period, there are many patients who have been seen only via telehealth for almost 3 years due to the accommodations that the DEA has allowed. If there was any indication that overprescribing, drug diversion, or other misuse was occurring during this time, there would have been much more evidence and reports of potential overdoses, lack of medication adherence, and patient harm. There is lack of evidence that this has occurred in the medical community and industry.

Additionally, all 50 states have allowed through the state Medical Practice Acts or other legislative statutes, that a valid patient-physician relationship can be established via telehealth. To require that any established telemedicine relationships must now have at least one in-person visit by a provider is an unnecessary cost for the patient and/or the insurance companies, and does not justify such a requirement, especially for a patient who has been seen via telehealth over such an extended period.

We recommend the in-person exam requirement for provider-patient relationships that were established during the PHE be removed or have other guardrails in place. For example, if the initial visit has occurred within the last 90 days prior when these new rules become in effect, then an in-person visit may be warranted, but not one if the patient has been seen during the duration of the PHE.

5. 1300.04(k)

Within the definition of a “qualifying telemedicine referral,” it outlines that the “referral must note the name and National Provider Identifier (NPI) of the practitioner to whom the patient is being referred.”

Requiring the name of a specific practitioner and their individual NPI number on a referral is far too burdensome on both the referring provider and the patient. For referring providers, it would require them to have an identified telehealth provider that they can refer patients. Particularly for behavioral health providers, in many parts of the country, there are little to no local resources available and thus, referring providers are unlikely to know specifically which providers they can refer patients to and are far less likely to know if those practitioners are accepting new patients. In some cases, it is left to the patient to contact their insurance carrier or search on the internet for a specialty provider. Furthermore, it would require pre-referral preparedness such as identifying a provider they want to be referred to, obtain that provider’s NPI number, and confirm they have availability to be seen. This is completely impractical.

Instead, we strongly recommend removing the requirement that the referral must list a specific practitioner and instead allow the patient to be referred generally to a telemedicine practitioner.

6. Maintaining addresses in states where practitioners do not reside or have a physical office location

Although not specifically addressed in the proposed rule, we wanted to address one other consideration while you are evaluating the regulations around telehealth prescribing. In your rationale as to why practitioners do not need addresses in each state where they see patients via telemedicine for the purposes of storing medical records, you explain:

“If DEA instead were to require records to be maintained in the State(s) where telemedicine patients are located, practitioners could theoretically have to maintain telemedicine records in over 50 different locations (if they had a nationwide practice), including in states in which they may not retain a physical office location. This would be burdensome for both the practitioner and DEA investigators…This process would become impracticable if investigators had to obtain records from 50 different locations across the county, resulting in significant administrative waste (p.21).”

While we appreciate the recognition that the majority of practitioners now maintain electronic records, the burden still applies when practitioners need to apply for a DEA registration in a state where they are prescribing to patients via telemedicine, but they do not reside or have a physical office location in that state.

While we agree with the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) requirement of having a DEA registration in the state where the patient is located, for telemedicine practitioners, the DEA application for that registration is onerous given the physical address requirement. These telehealth practitioners do not have a physical office in the states where they are treating patients via telemedicine, yet the physical address requirement still stands. Just as you justify above regarding the storing of medical records, for practitioners who have a nationwide practice, they need to maintain a physical address in all 50 states to apply for a DEA registration. This is burdensome on both the practitioners and the DEA investigators, and we wanted to bring this issue to your attention and recommend revising the application regarding the physical address location for practitioners practicing via telemedicine.

Similarly, we would also like to request that the DEA reviews certain definition and categories to help clarify some terms that need to reflect current telehealth practices and standards.

“Administering”, “Dispensing”, “Maintaining” – These terms should not be interchangeable nor should be collectively grouped together as it relates to telehealth and reasons why an applicant may need a certain physical address vs practice address. In telehealth practice, it is practically non-existent that any clinicians will maintain any controlled substances or physical records at a physical location. Medical records are stored in an EMR, and controlled substance prescriptions are sent electronically to a pharmacy for the patient to pick up. Therefore, putting a physical address on a DEA application provides great confusion to the applicant since many of them are not in the same state where services are delivered, but still hold a valid state medical license where the patient will be sitting, and there is no limitation on those applications where that clinician needs to practice within the state.

To reduce diversion concerns, we propose that the DEA make a distinction between the authority to write a prescription and the authority to administer, dispense, or maintain controlled substances in how DEA registrations are issued. Practitioners who only conduct telemedicine do not need the authority to store, dispense, or maintain controlled substances, and we believe such a distinction could reduce diversion risk while also reducing DEA’s investigative burdens of certain site inspections.

On behalf of Array Behavioral Care, we appreciate the opportunity to provide comments and recommendations and we would be happy to offer any additional consultation.

James Varrell, MD, Executive Chief Medical Officer

Geoffrey Boyce, Chief Executive Officer

Leroy Arenivar, MD, Medical Director

Shane Rau, MD, Medical Director

Array is pleased to be featured among the best virtual therapy companies by Verywell Mind. Their independent research revealed very favorable results when testing our online therapy services. Our high-quality, easy-to-use service stood out among the trials with several other companies.

Array has recognized the need for improving access to quality behavioral health services since our first commitment via telepsychiatry in 1999, a moment that shaped our mission to transform how behavioral health care can reach more people in need.

As the nation’s leading virtual psychiatry and therapy practice, we employ hundreds of licensed behavioral health clinicians with specialties across the gamut and licensure in all 50 states, giving us the capacity and flexibility to scale and meet the growing demands of health care partners and patients nationwide. Read the review here.

CANTON, Ohio, Jan. 23, 2023 — US Acute Care Solutions (USACS), the largest physician-owned acute care practice in the nation, and Array Behavioral Care, the nation’s leading virtual psychiatry and therapy practice, today announced a strategic partnership to offer comprehensive acute medical and psychiatric care services to health systems.

With the newly formed Behavioral Emergency Stabilization and Treatment (BEST) model, USACS and Array will unite its clinical and technological expertise to combat the growing epidemic of acute mental illness that has impacted the nation for decades.

Patients with acute psychiatric issues have significantly higher average emergency department (ED) lengths of stay and are more likely to stay in the ED for longer than 12 hours than those with other medical conditions (Simko 2022)[1]. It is not uncommon for emergency departments around the nation to have psychiatric patients waiting days for specialist care and transfer to appropriate institutions. The burden on psychiatric patients and their families is paralleled by the challenges posed to the health system, especially during this time of staffing and resource shortages.

The downstream result of delays in acute psychiatric care has a domino effect on non-psychiatric patient care and throughput. Array’s sophisticated virtual psychiatric care platform and clinical expertise can improve the speed of evaluation, treatment initiation and patient throughput, which improves the quality of care for all patients in the acute care space. Additionally, by using virtual technology, Array and USACS will be able to facilitate quicker access to care and further address social determinants of health.

“By combining our strengths in emergency medicine, hospital medicine and critical care with Array’s expertise in behavioral care, we can meet the physical and mental health needs of our patients and support our health system partners with a comprehensive suite of acute care services,” said Chris Hummer, Chief Executive Officer of USACS.

“Our mission at Array is to help address the nation’s mental health needs by using technology to bring licensed behavioral health clinicians to patients everywhere. Together with USACS, we can help provide holistic care to more patients in acute care settings and enable the clinicians at USACS to work at the top of their license,” said Geoffrey Boyce, Chief Executive Officer of Array.

“Health systems see the effects of undertreated mental illness in our communities firsthand. Hospitals are continuing to experience massive influxes of psychiatric patients to their emergency departments because of poor access to outpatient mental health services. This affects not just the psychiatric patients but all patients in the emergency department. If we can manage psychiatric patients through early stabilization and treatment, we can improve the quality of care and clinical operations so that all patients can be seen faster and more comprehensively,” said Dr. Matt Patlovany, President and Chief Clinical Officer of USACS.

“At Array, we aim to deliver quality and timely behavioral health, using evidence-based tools that meet patients where they are. We’re excited to see how this strategic partnership can help health systems across the nation meet the physical and mental health care needs of their community,” said Dr. Jim Varrell, Executive Chief Medical Officer of Array.

“We at USACS have already demonstrated through our Integrated Acute Care model that emergency medicine, hospital medicine and critical care working together can produce better clinical outcomes for our patients and operational outcomes for our health system partners,“ added Dr. Amer Aldeen, Chief Medical Officer of USACS. “Now, we are excited to partner with the national leader in virtual psychiatric care to ensure that high-quality care includes both physical and mental health.”

About USACS

Founded by emergency medicine and hospitalist physicians across the country, USACS is solely owned by its physicians and hospital system partners. The group is a national leader in integrated acute care, including emergency medicine, hospitalist and critical care services. USACS provides high-quality care to approximately nine million patients annually across more than 500 programs and is aligned with many of the leading health systems in the country. Visit usacs.com for more.

About Array Behavioral Care 

Array Behavioral Care is the nation’s leading clinician-centric virtual psychiatry and therapy practice with a mission to transform access to quality, timely behavioral health care. Array is uniquely positioned to offer virtual behavioral health solutions across the continuum of care, with three flexible delivery models that provide patients and healthcare organizations with timely access to mental health care services regardless of acuity or setting.  For more than 20 years, Array has partnered with hundreds of hospitals and health systems, community health care organizations and payers of all sizes to expand access to care and improve outcomes for underserved individuals, facilities and communities. As an industry pioneer and established thought leader, Array has helped shape the field, define the standard of care and advocate for improved telepsychiatry-friendly regulations. To learn more, visit www.arraybc.com.

[1] Simko L, Birgisson N E, Pirrotta E A, et al. (June 02, 2022) Waiting for Care: Length of Stay for ED Mental Health Patients by Disposition, Diagnosis, and Region (2009–2015). Cureus 14(6): e25604. DOI 10.7759/cureus.25604

Investment round led by CVS Health provides leading virtual behavioral health provider support to meet mental health needs across the care continuum.

MOUNT LAUREL, NJ – Jan. 9, 2023 — Array Behavioral Care, the nation’s leading virtual psychiatry and therapy practice, announced today the closing of its latest equity round to further scale modern behavioral health care across the continuum, with CVS Health leading the round. Existing investors also joined the round and contributed additional capital.

The financing builds upon a long history between Array and CVS Health and opens doors to new levels of collaboration to expand access to high-quality behavioral care.

"Array has consistently been a strong mental health care provider within Aetna’s network,” said Cara McNulty, President of Behavioral Health and Mental Well-being for CVS Health. “As CVS Health drives more innovation into care delivery, we look forward to working with Array to enhance access that complements our existing services in new ways.”

Serving hospitals, clinics, and individuals directly at home, Array uniquely delivers psychiatry and therapy across the continuum of care. With CVS Health as a new investor, Array will scale faster to provide further access to quality, timely behavioral care in new and existing markets through enhanced service offerings and operations, innovative technology, and expansion of the practice team.

"The Array team's experience with telepsychiatry spans more than two decades, and during this time, we've been at the forefront of creating, implementing, and evolving virtualized mental health programs across the continuum of care. From our first telepsychiatry encounter in a rural hospital in 1999 to caring for patients online from their homes today, we've stayed true to our mission to meet patients where they are regardless of acuity level or setting to deliver the behavioral health care they deserve,” said Geoffrey Boyce, CEO and Co-founder of Array. "As we continue to lead the charge in transforming access to modern behavioral health care, we’re proud to do it with our existing partners and CVS Health.”

“Array’s long history in virtual behavioral care and its devotion to quality stand out,” said Vijay Patel, Managing Partner and co-founder of CVS Health Ventures, the company’s dedicated corporate venture capital platform. “Our collaboration and investment can help enhance access to these services, which is particularly important with demand for mental health services increasing significantly in recent years.”

As an early champion of telepsychiatry more than 20 years ago, Array and its early founders have been instrumental in the reinvention of how mental health care is delivered. The practice has long advocated for improved access to timely, quality behavioral health care in hospitals, community clinics, primary care offices, and homes for patients nationwide. Today, there are about 90 million Americans who can access Array’s services across all 50 states.

An estimated 150 million Americans, or 40% of the population, live in federally designated mental health professional shortage areas. According to research by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, only 27.7% of the national need for mental health professionals is actively being met. This scarcity of mental health professionals prevents patients from receiving the care they need, resulting in adverse health outcomes. The virtual care model allows for a more equitable distribution of clinical resources, particularly in rural and underserved communities, helping to remove barriers that limit patient access and increasing collaboration between mental and physical health clinicians.

“Our practice has always focused on helping provide patients the care they need, when and where they need it, without sacrificing quality,” said Dr. James Varrell, Executive Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Array. “It's clear that telebehavioral care is one of the most meaningful ways to address the clinician shortage and mental health crisis. As our practice broadens its reach, our patients and partners can rest assured in knowing that we lead with quality and clinical excellence first and foremost."

Virtual solutions can also benefit psychiatrists, therapists, and other clinicians who can often be burdened with excessive administrative work that detracts from time that could be spent providing direct patient care. At Array, clinicians have a support team of clinical, operational, administrative, and technical specialists who help providers operate at the top of their licenses, integrate with care teams, and similarly practice as they would if they were physically present with the patient. In 2022, Array earned the Great Place to Work Certification, with 90 percent of team members calling Array a great place to work.

CVS Health joins other industry leaders and early investors in Array Behavioral Care, including Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, Health Velocity Capital, Harbour Point Capital, HLM Venture Partners, OCA Ventures, and OSF Healthcare.

Wells Fargo served as Array’s advisor on the transaction with a team led by Puneet Chandhok.

David Fairchild, MD, MPH, SVP and Chief Medical Officer of Retail Health for CVS Health will join Array’s board of directors. “Providing high-quality, whole-person care to consumers is essential to improving the health care system,” said Dr. Fairchild. “Working with Dr. Varrell, Geoffrey Boyce and the entire Array organization, we believe that we can help increase access to excellent, convenient behavioral health care services.”

To learn more about Array Behavioral Care, please visit www.arraybc.com.

About Array Behavioral Care 

Array Behavioral Care is the nation's leading clinician-centric virtual psychiatry and therapy practice with a mission to transform access to quality, timely behavioral health care. Array offers telepsychiatry solutions and services across the continuum of care, from hospital to home, through its three flexible delivery models. For more than 20 years, Array has partnered with hundreds of hospitals and health systems, community health care organizations and payers of all sizes to expand access to care and improve outcomes for underserved individuals, facilities, and communities. As an industry pioneer and established thought leader, Array has helped shape the field, define the standard of care and advocate for improved telepsychiatry-friendly regulations. To learn more, visit www.arraybc.com.

About CVS Health

CVS Health is the leading health solutions company, delivering care like no one else can. We reach more people and improve the health of communities across America through our local presence, digital channels and over 300,000 dedicated colleagues – including more than 40,000 physicians, pharmacists, nurses and nurse practitioners. Wherever and whenever people need us, we help them with their health – whether that’s managing chronic diseases, staying compliant with their medications or accessing affordable health and wellness services in the most convenient ways. We help people navigate the health care system – and their personal health care – by improving access, lowering costs and being a trusted partner for every meaningful moment of health. And we do it all with heart, each and every day. Follow @CVSHealth on social media.