Nonprofit behavioral health provider Sheppard Pratt and private equity firm Concord Health Partners are taking their years-long collaboration to the next level, aiming to tackle some of the most persistent challenges in the behavioral health industry. The partnership brings together the unique strengths of both organizations — Sheppard Pratt’s legacy of nonprofit behavioral health expertise and Concord’s experience in growth-stage investments — to create a Behavioral Health Innovation Fund. This fund is designed to back companies that leverage technology to improve access, quality, and efficiency of care on a large scale.
Dr. Harsh Trivedi, CEO and president of Sheppard Pratt, will assume a new role as special adviser at Summit, New Jersey-based Concord Health Partners while continuing his leadership at Sheppard Pratt. As one of the nation’s largest behavioral health and human services nonprofits, Sheppard Pratt employs more than 5,000 people and reported $400.5 million in revenue in fiscal year 2022. “We are utilizing this as kind of like a skunkworks, or an opportunity to disrupt the broader behavioral health market,” Trivedi told Behavioral Health Business. “Not through our brick-and-mortar facilities, but by engaging in a project that involves the American Hospital Association as well as other limited partners to fundamentally shift care. That’s a model that’s very different.”
The collaboration builds on Trivedi’s prior engagement with Concord Health Partners during his time on the American Hospital Association (AHA) board and as a member of its investment committee. Concord Health Partners launched its first fund in 2019 with the AHA serving as the anchor limited partner (LP), joined by more than a dozen large health systems. Sheppard Pratt joined Concord’s second fund, known as the Behavioral Health Innovation Fund, alongside roughly 30 LPs including health systems, payers, and a large physician practice. The Behavioral Health Innovation Fund, which closed in September 2022, has approximately $150 million allocated to investments in growth-stage companies that demonstrate innovative solutions for improving care access, quality, and cost efficiency — with a special emphasis on behavioral health.
Investing in Solutions to Improve Access and Outcomes
A clear example of the partnership’s approach is its investment in Austin, Texas-based telepsychiatry provider Iris Telehealth. In April 2022, Iris closed a $40 million Series B round, co-led by the Behavioral Health Innovation Fund, to support its national expansion. The investment highlights the critical issue of limited access to psychiatrists in the U.S. “When patients come into the ED, they often don’t have the appropriate clinicians available at the point of care,” said Concord founder and managing partner James Olsen. “Patients can sit in the ED for days or weeks, and then face a six- to nine-month wait to see the appropriate clinician.” By supporting companies like Iris Telehealth, the Behavioral Health Innovation Fund aims to reduce these delays and ensure that patients can access the care they need in a timely manner.
Dr. Trivedi will advise Concord on identifying companies that are well-positioned to solve major behavioral health challenges, while Sheppard Pratt and other LPs will help test these solutions at scale in real-world settings. This dual engagement — strategic advisory and operational testing — is intended to create a feedback loop that accelerates the development of solutions that are not only innovative but also practical and effective for broad implementation.
Beyond Telepsychiatry: Data-Driven Patient Management
The partnership is also exploring investments in companies that can transform patient management across the behavioral health continuum. Post Acute Analytics, a Lewisville, Texas-based software firm, exemplifies this approach. While the company primarily serves the post-acute care sector, its patient tracking and analytics system can assess the optimal care setting or provider type based on local and real-time data. “We would like to find a company that is managing a patient across the behavioral health continuum through assessment tools, technology, and AI, so that the patient can be managed much more effectively — and at scale,” Olsen said.
Such innovations are seen as essential to addressing the behavioral health system’s long-standing pain points. Trivedi noted that while many solutions exist, they are often too narrow in scope, targeting limited populations or specific treatment types. “What we are trying to do, with the other LPs, is identify where the needs are, and then turn to the market to either find the solutions or work with some of our portfolio companies to say, ‘You’re doing this — how can we also meet this partner’s needs?’” he explained.
Driving Evolutionary Change in Behavioral Health
The Sheppard Pratt-Concord partnership represents a unique model in behavioral health innovation, combining nonprofit knowledge, private equity resources, and direct engagement with the organizations and patients affected by the solutions. “There is this active feedback loop between the LPs and the portfolio companies,” Trivedi said. “We’re not just investing or sitting on boards — we’re creating a model for meaningful, scalable change in behavioral health.”
By pairing the deep industry insights of Sheppard Pratt with Concord Health Partners’ investment expertise, the Behavioral Health Innovation Fund is positioned to accelerate the pace of innovation in behavioral health. From telepsychiatry to AI-driven patient management systems, the fund is focused on creating solutions that improve patient access, enhance quality of care, and reduce systemic inefficiencies.
Olsen highlighted the importance of understanding the real-world challenges faced by providers and payers: “We understand the top priorities, the pain points, the challenges that the providers and payers are experiencing. That really helps to inform where we spend our time and energy looking for best-in-class platforms with technologies and solutions that are broadly relevant to the industry.”
In an industry often constrained by siloed approaches and fragmented care delivery, the Sheppard Pratt-Concord partnership offers a new path forward — one that leverages both financial acumen and clinical expertise to drive lasting, scalable improvements in behavioral health care. The Behavioral Health Innovation Fund represents a strategic, collaborative approach to solving systemic issues and shaping the future of behavioral health delivery.
