Over the last decade, the behavioral health landscape has evolved rapidly.
Demand for psychiatric care has increased, fueled by greater awareness of mental health, the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and longstanding shortages of psychiatrists across the United States. Millions of Americans struggle to find timely access to care, with many communities facing months-long wait times for appointments.
At the same time, mental health has become an increasingly attractive investment opportunity. Large corporations, venture-backed startups, and private equity firms have invested billions of dollars into physician practices, behavioral health organizations, and telehealth companies.
Investment itself isn’t inherently negative. Additional capital can help organizations hire providers, improve technology, expand into underserved communities, and build better systems for patients.
The question isn’t whether investment is good or bad.
The more important question is: What happens when financial priorities begin competing with clinical priorities?
Most patients can’t see what happens in executive meetings or boardrooms. They simply notice how care feels. Maybe appointments feel rushed. Maybe it’s difficult to reach someone by phone. Maybe providers seem overwhelmed. Maybe there are constant changes in clinicians or administrative staff.
These experiences often have many causes, healthcare staffing shortages, insurance complexity, workforce burnout, and growing patient demand all play important roles. Ownership isn’t the only factor. But research suggests that organizational incentives can influence the patient experience.
For example, a 2025 study published in JAMA found that hospitals acquired by private equity firms experienced declines in several measures of patient-reported care experience compared with similar hospitals that were not acquired. Patients were less likely to rate their care highly or recommend the hospital after acquisition, with differences becoming more pronounced over time.
Other research has found that private equity acquisition of physician practices has been associated with higher healthcare spending and increased utilization in several specialties, although these studies do not conclude that every private equity-owned practice delivers poor care.
Healthcare is complex. Many outstanding clinicians work in organizations backed by investors, and many patients receive excellent care in those settings every day.
Still, these findings have prompted ongoing discussion among physicians, policymakers, and healthcare researchers about how ownership structures may influence the delivery of care.
Psychiatry isn’t transactional.
Unlike many medical specialties, psychiatric appointments often involve lengthy conversations about deeply personal experiences… grief, trauma, anxiety, depression, relationships, work stress, parenting, addiction, or thoughts patients may have never shared with another person.
Trust doesn’t develop overnight. Neither does meaningful treatment.
Good psychiatric care requires listening carefully, asking thoughtful questions, considering the whole person, and making collaborative treatment decisions that evolve over time.
Sometimes medication is appropriate. Sometimes therapy is the better starting point. Sometimes both are needed. Sometimes medical workups are needed. As life evolves, so must the approach to treatment. These are medical decisions that should be guided by clinical judgment, not productivity quotas.
When you’re looking for mental health care, you’re probably thinking about questions like:
One question that rarely comes to mind is who actually owns the practice.
Yet behind the scenes, ownership can influence everything from scheduling and staffing to how much time clinicians spend with patients and what kinds of treatment options are available. While ownership alone doesn’t determine whether a practice delivers excellent care, it does shape priorities… and those priorities eventually affect the patient experience.At Bonmente, we’re proud to be physician-owned and physician-operated. That isn’t simply a business distinction. It’s a philosophy that influences how we think about mental health care every day.
Bonmente was founded by Mottsin Thomas, a psychiatrist who envisioned a practice built around one central idea: providing excellent mental health care is the most convenient way possible.
As a resident in training at UCLA, Dr. Thomas saw how many appointments patients missed because they couldn’t find transportation or got stuck in traffic, how many patients fell out of care because of language barriers or cultural disconnects, how people that were making good progress got lost in the shuffle because of changing providers. He set out to find a solution that made getting care easier and made giving care more fulfilling.
By leveraging technology without sacrificing the importance of human connection, he simplified long intake processes, integrated click-of-a-button telepsychiatry appointments, and recruited diverse practitioners who shared his commitment to quality, evidence-based care. His decision-making continues to be guided by making Bonmente a place he would want his loved ones to get care and a place he would want to work.
That doesn’t mean running a medical practice without efficiency or accountability. Healthcare organizations need sustainable operations to continue serving patients. But physician ownership changes who sits at the table when important decisions are made.
Instead of asking only “How can we improve financial performance?,” a physician-led organization also asks:
Those are different conversations. And they often lead to different priorities.
One of the advantages of physician ownership is that clinical leadership remains close to the patient experience.
The people making strategic decisions understand firsthand what it means to diagnose depression.
To manage complex ADHD.
To carefully adjust medications.
To recognize bipolar disorder that was previously mistaken for anxiety.
To help someone safely taper medication when appropriate.
To support a new mother experiencing postpartum depression.
To recognize when someone needs psychotherapy instead of another prescription.
Those experiences shape decision-making in ways that spreadsheets cannot.
When physicians remain deeply involved in leadership, clinical judgment naturally stays at the center of organizational culture.
Bonmente embraces technology because it can remove barriers to care. Telepsychiatry allows patients to connect with licensed psychiatric providers from home, reducing travel time and making specialty mental health care available to people who may otherwise have limited access. Electronic forms and prescriptions save time and frustration and decrease waste and the risks to protected health information.
But technology is a tool. It is not the relationship.
Bonmente’s goal has never been to automate mental health care. Our goal is to make compassionate psychiatric care more accessible while preserving the human connection that effective treatment requires.
That means providers who listen. Appointments focused on patients, not computer screens. Care plans built around individual needs instead of standardized formulas.
Patients often benefit when clinicians stay with an organization for years. Continuity matters.
When providers remain with a practice, patients are more likely to build long-term therapeutic relationships, experience consistent treatment approaches, and avoid unnecessary disruptions in care.
Physician-led organizations often place significant emphasis on supporting clinicians as professionals, not simply as productivity metrics.
That includes fostering collaboration, encouraging continuing education, supporting evidence-based practice, and creating an environment where providers can focus on delivering excellent care.
When clinicians feel supported, patients often notice the difference.
For most patients, physician ownership isn’t something they’ll think about during an appointment. Instead, they’ll experience it in smaller ways.
These moments may seem small individually, but together, they create a very different healthcare experience.
At Bonmente, physician ownership isn’t our entire identity, but it is an important part of it.
It reflects our belief that medicine should remain guided by medical professionals. It supports a culture where clinical excellence matters. It reinforces our commitment to treating every patient as an individual rather than a statistic.
Every healthcare organization must balance operational realities with patient care. Physician ownership doesn’t automatically solve every challenge facing modern healthcare, nor does it guarantee perfect experiences. What it does provide is a governance model in which the physician perspective remains central when difficult decisions are made.
That matters in psychiatry.
Mental health care isn’t simply about diagnosing symptoms or prescribing medications. It’s about understanding people. It’s about building trust. It’s about recognizing that behind every appointment is someone hoping to feel better, reconnect with loved ones, succeed at work or school, sleep through the night, or simply enjoy life again.
Those goals deserve more than an assembly-line approach to healthcare. They deserve thoughtful, compassionate medical care led by people who entered medicine to care for patients first.
At Bonmente, that’s exactly the standard we strive to uphold every day.
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