New episode: The Chatbot Will See You Now (from Organized Money)

Hey there —

We have a new episode up this morning, this time from our friends at the podcast Organized Money, a show about corporate consolidation and monopolies.

This episode is all about the business of therapy: from the obstacles preventing therapists from taking your insurance, to the way tech companies could be sharing data from your online therapy sessions with social media companies and investors.

Organized Money hosts David Dayen and Matt Stoller talk with Linda Michaels, a psychologist and co-founder of the Psychotherapy Action Network, about all the new ways these tech companies — like BetterHelp and Talkspace — are getting and using your data, what it means when chatbots replace human therapists, and how we got here in the first place.

Yeah, it’s a creepy one. But not all hopeless. Because as it turns out, Dan’s home state, Illinois, passed a law last year that Michaels says could serve as a model for undoing some of this.

We hope you’ll check it out.

And if you’ve used a service like Talkspace or BetterHelp, it might be worth sharing this episode with your therapist. Tell us how that goes too — we promise our inbox is read by humans only.

Have you ever had trouble finding a therapist covered by your insurance?

Or discovered that all the therapists listed under your insurance plan don’t actually accept it?

This problem is so common it has a name: “ghost networks.”

In 2023, Dan spoke with attorney Abigail Burman about this spooky phenomenon, and what you can try in order to “ghostbust” your insurance plan and find a therapist who’s covered. And she helped us write a step-by-step guide.

It’s a lot — and as Dan wrote then, there are no silver bullets. But it’s worth a try.

Have you ever battled with your insurance to get them to cover mental health services — like therapy, rehab, or something else — and won? We’d love to hear your story.

Til next time,

— Claire