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I'm the CEO of Bright Heart Health,
a telemedicine, mental health and addiction program.
We're based in San Ramon, California.
We've been operating since the beginning of 2015.
We incorporate the use of videoconferencing, meeting with patients,
having physicians, therapists,
and recovery specialist work with patients
to overcome mental health and addiction issues.
When we first got started,
I knew that there would be some suspicion around providing treatment online,
and online being videoconferencing,
but people would question the quality of care that we are providing.
And so I knew I needed the top accreditation I could get,
so I reached out to The Joint Commission.
They were open to all of our ideas in terms of what we were trying to do.
They explain it in ways that met their standards
and they came out and did their survey.
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So for Bright Heart Health,
The Joint Commission has paid off
almost immediately after incorporating the organization,
in which case we received the Gold seal, which we all celebrated.
It really didn't hit us how important this was
until we started then going after insurance contracts.
And our company is headquartered in California,
and so we called the major insurance organization
in California,
and we actually got routed to the medical director
on the behavioral health side.
At the time, no organizations were contracted for telemedicine.
We would call in to get insurance benefits and they're like, "Telemedicine? Nope."
And so, I was talking to the medical director
and he was asking me about the organization and what we did,
and the moment I mentioned that we had The Joint Commission accreditation,
the whole conversation switched. He basically said, "Let's do a pilot."
That was a game changer for us.
We couldn't even get them to answer our phone.
And by mentioning The Joint Commission,
they wanted to do a pilot.
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When you think about just overall quality, a symbol that's recognized,
whether it's in hospitals, or outpatient care,
even outside of the healthcare industry,
it's The Joint Commission.
The seal comes across right away.
Once they see it, I put it on a slide, I don't even have to explain it.
They all understand it.
And that is...
powered because, not only do I get their buy-in that we provide quality care,
but now I get to focus my message
on the other factors that they're considering.
We've taken the concern around quality off the table,
and that's what The Joint Commission provides us.
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