Post-Covid, practitioners and industry leaders will look to solve issues facing mental health services, infertility and innovation

Attempts to solve mental health crisis have a long, bumpy road

Mayor Eric Adams in December unveiled a plan to connect New Yorkers suffering from severe, untreated mental illness to emergency and long-term care. The plan was harshly rebuked by advocates, with Jawanza Williams, director of organizing for Voices of Community Activists and Leaders-New York, a social services organization, calling the directive, which relies on the police for implementation, "draconian."

The plan includes several proposals aimed at hospitals, but full implementation will require changes to state law. They include a requirement that hospitals screen all psychiatric patients for eligibility under Kendra's Law, which places recipients under a court order to get mental health treatment. Another proposal would require hospitals to notify a psychiatric patient's community providers, if there are any, when their clients are admitted or released.

On the state level, lawmakers will push Gov. Kathy Hochul to add more funding for psychiatric hospital beds and other mental health care services, including better pay for providers. The state budget will likely include a number of such provisions related to mental health care. — Amanda Glodowski

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Benefits are a source of major growth

Maven Clinic just raised $90 million more in a Series E round, which will help fuel 20% headcount growth in 2023. Its meteoric rise since launching in 2014 is emblematic of the growing emphasis on comprehensive fertility services as an employer benefit-increasingly considered a must-have for major companies.

Maven, along with Kindbody, helps employers meet that demand.

Family planning benefits, however, are not the only perk that employees are refusing to go without. As the cost of providing health care rises for 2023, mental health benefits and telehealth support are becoming increasingly in demand-and some employers are getting squeezed. — Jacqueline Neber

Municipal retirees vs. the budget

The city has been entrenched in a yearslong battle with unions and retirees as it attempts to privatize health insurance for more than 250,000 municipal retirees, a move that officials say could save the city more than $600 million annually.

During the summer, Empire BlueCross Blueshield nixed its plan with the city to administer Medicare Advantage health plans, and lawsuits against the city, led by the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, progressed. At the end of 2022 a judge ruled that the city must pay for the entirety of any plan a retiree selects and an arbitrator ruled that the city must create a Medicare Advantage plan — with Aetna, instead.

In 2023 it is anyone's game, said Marianne Pizzitola, president of the retirees organization. If the city reaches an agreement with Aetna, the Municipal Labor Committee will vote on it. If the City Council changes the administrative code, retirees could lose access to the SeniorCare supplemental plan. — J.N.

Life sciences trudge on

New York is still playing second-fiddle to cities like Boston or San Francisco when it comes to the life science and digital health sectors. But the city's mix of investors, founders and academics are poised to change that, and New York made leaps and bounds in 2022.

"There's just a lot more activity, energy, vibrancy, community going on here," said Bunny Ellerin, founder of Digital Health New York.

In 2023, Ellerin said, while it will still be harder to raise money than in years past, founders and investors will continue to solve health care problems and get New York closer to the top. — J.N.

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Published on Jan. 9, 2023