INDUSTRY PULSE 

Your Monthly Briefing

for Private Practice Leaders

The mental health field shifts fast—policy changes, insurance trends, tech updates, compliance risks, and new opportunities come at you all at once. This page gives you the distilled version. No noise, no doom-scrolling, no digging through dense government PDFs.

Each month you’ll find a fresh, grounded breakdown of what’s changing in the industry, what it means for your practice, and how to stay one step ahead with clear, actionable guidance. Think of this as your private briefing room: a place to stay informed, anchored, and strategically prepared for whatever the next quarter brings.

I’ll update this space with new insights every time a newsletter lands in your inbox. You get the signal—without the static.

2025 Mental Health Compliance + Trends: Year in Review

2025 didn’t just nudge the mental health industry forward — it rearranged the furniture. Big policy shifts, heavier compliance expectations, and a whole lot of new legislation made one thing clear: the way practices operate has to keep evolving if we want to stay both sustainable and protected.

The headline change? The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) final rule officially took effect. Translation: health plans are now required to apply the same utilization review standards to mental health + substance use benefits as they do to medical/surgical care. No more quietly holding behavioral health to a different (harder) standard. Several states moved quickly to align with these federal requirements — including Georgia, Alaska, Oklahoma, and Washington — with a particular focus on data evaluation and requiring “meaningful benefits” for patients.

And they weren’t alone. Across the country, 29 states passed 75 mental health-related bills, addressing everything from insurance coverage mandates and workforce shortages to crisis response systems and school-based mental health initiatives. (Yes, seventy-five. Legislators were busy.)

On the ground, we also saw real investments in the workforce + crisis infrastructure — which is both encouraging and long overdue. Texas expanded its Mental Health Professional Loan Repayment Program, offering up to $180,000 for psychiatrists and widening eligibility to include associate-level counselors, especially in rural areas. Maryland launched its statewide 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline system in July. Virginia passed the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Act, putting real attention (finally) on our youngest patients and the providers who serve them.

Meanwhile, compliance didn’t exactly… simplify. Federal requirements became more layered with enhanced price transparency rules, new prescription drug data reporting, and growing scrutiny of pharmacy benefit managers. And then the Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision added another plot twist by shifting how federal regulations are interpreted — which matters because it introduces new uncertainty around how parity enforcement may unfold going forward.

So what does all of this mean for practice owners? Here’s the blunt truth: 2025 was the year to stop treating compliance as a once-a-year checkbox. The safest move now is to proactively audit your utilization management, billing practices, coverage policies, and documentation workflows so you’re meeting parity standards — and protecting both your patients and your practice from the kind of mess that steals your time, your money, and your peace.

Because in this industry, compliance isn’t just about following the rules.
It’s about building a practice that can actually hold up under pressure.

New Year Bare Necessities 

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the start of a new year, here's the bare minimum to check off your to-do list: 

Obtain updated paperwork + authorizations from patients if you use Jan 1 as your turnover date

Verify new insurance for patients with policy periods rolling over on Jan 1 

Annual goals mapped to your actual capacity