<story><title>BetterHelp Barred by FTC from Sharing Data with Facebook</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-02/teladoc-s-tdoc-betterhelp-online-therapy-unit-barred-from-data-sharing</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dymk</author><text>I used BetterHelp mid-pandemic. It&amp;#x27;s one of the few times I&amp;#x27;ve issued a credit card chargeback.&lt;p&gt;Their business model is one big scam. You don&amp;#x27;t pay per-session, you pay per-month. Thus, they oversubscribe their &amp;quot;therapists&amp;quot; (who are almost all independent contractors doing BH as their side gig), and so the incentive is encourage you to book as infrequently as possible.&lt;p&gt;Once you take that into account, it ends up being as expensive or more than a traditional therapist.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jonathankoren</author><text>A &amp;quot;scam&amp;quot;? That&amp;#x27;s a pretty strong word. I&amp;#x27;d go with an &amp;quot;ineffective ripoff&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I tried two competitors. Both were horrible. Thirty minute sessions, where the &amp;quot;therapist&amp;quot; did all the talking, and then occasionally gave a PDF worksheet. Apparently this is &amp;quot;cognitive behavioral therapy&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I tried TalkSpace twice. My favorite experience was when I texted the &amp;quot;therapist&amp;quot; and got back -- and let me quote &lt;i&gt;in full&lt;/i&gt; -- &amp;quot;That&amp;#x27;s a lot. Can you fill out this worksheet, and do this self-assessment?&amp;quot; (This would be the same assessment I had done four times prior. And the worksheet looked like it came from the chummiest chumsite on the web. There was even a URL on the bottom, where she had just clicked &amp;quot;Print | Save to PDF&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I tried Cerebral, and its &amp;quot;therapists&amp;quot; were equally worthless. However, the &amp;quot;prescriber&amp;quot; gave me an SSRI (shockingly fast), which actually helped.&lt;p&gt;Cerebral felt like a pill mill, and apparently the DOJ also thinks so.
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;5&amp;#x2F;9&amp;#x2F;23063356&amp;#x2F;cerebral-telehealth-prescriptions-investigation-adhd-adderall-doj-dea&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;5&amp;#x2F;9&amp;#x2F;23063356&amp;#x2F;cerebral-teleheal...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>BetterHelp Barred by FTC from Sharing Data with Facebook</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-02/teladoc-s-tdoc-betterhelp-online-therapy-unit-barred-from-data-sharing</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dymk</author><text>I used BetterHelp mid-pandemic. It&amp;#x27;s one of the few times I&amp;#x27;ve issued a credit card chargeback.&lt;p&gt;Their business model is one big scam. You don&amp;#x27;t pay per-session, you pay per-month. Thus, they oversubscribe their &amp;quot;therapists&amp;quot; (who are almost all independent contractors doing BH as their side gig), and so the incentive is encourage you to book as infrequently as possible.&lt;p&gt;Once you take that into account, it ends up being as expensive or more than a traditional therapist.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>modoc</author><text>Counter-point, they make it easy to try different therapists until you find one you feel comfortable with and you feel is helpful to you (not an easy task) with no additional costs, all from the comfort of your home.  I think I was paying ~$60&amp;#x2F;45 minute session with a great provider, who was always able to get me in schedule-wise, provided great benefit, and saved me from an hour+ drive each way.&lt;p&gt;I know several people, myself included, who have found their service very valuable.</text></comment>