Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health
Aug 27, 2026 · 18 min · 9 segments
In this episode, Laura Bauer, Vice President of Strategy at Iris Telehealth, discusses integrating behavioral health into women’s health across the lifespan, including proactive screening, menopause…
Laura BauerGuestErica Spicer-MasonHostYou make some really great points, Laura, and, uh, I think I, I wanna take this a little bit further because-
it seems, you know, without that proactive approach, the clinical risks and possibilities are, are clear, right? You've outlined those, um, you know, what can escalate i- in the perinatal period.
Um, uh, but for, for behavioral health services and women's health, really getting that integrated from a business perspective, what do the growth and the margin side of the story look like when, when we have that true embedded service line? Um, are there any metrics that you're seeing resonate with CFOs and service line leaders that you talk to?
Yeah, I mean, I think let's start with, why do we focus on maternal care? Why do we wanna put all of our sort of marketing spend on women? Because they're d- the decision makers of the family, right? We all know all of this.
So if we're being proactive and we're engaging these women and we're saying, "Hey, I think maybe you're not okay, and that's okay.
We wanna support you and your family", boy, there's a lot to be said about gaining trust with that patient, but more importantly, they're gonna be very, very loyal, right? And if we wanna gain that woman because she's the healthcare decision maker, well, gee, let's do a lot to help gain her loyalty, right? So engaging patients in this way and being really proactive and helping them feel seen, 'cause that's sort of what this, you know, customer survey that we did said, is that women aren't feeling seen.
We're feeling overwhelmed, right? If we say, "No, I see you, and I'm here for you, and it's okay to feel like that", the lifetime patient value that we're gonna get And the retention of patients is, is huge, right? Behavioral health is a retention strategy that's gonna lead to future primary care, specialty care, ancillary, procedural revenue for the health system.
Monetizing existing patient relationships rather than paying to acquire new patients, right? I mean, how much are you spending trying to shift market share? Move the dollars to go ahead and work on retaining patients.
And oh, by the way, like, you feel good about it 'cause it's the right thing to do.
Um, and the margin story is about that increased reimbursable services while doing the right thing, reducing leakage, supporting the overall ecosystem by getting loyalty from the patients that we're targeting with all of our marketing spend.
You make some really great points, Laura, and, uh, I think I, I wanna take this a little bit further because-
it seems, you know, without that proactive approach, the clinical risks and possibilities are, are clear, right? You've outlined those, um, you know, what can escalate i- in the perinatal period.
Um, uh, but for, for behavioral health services and women's health, really getting that integrated from a business perspective, what do the growth and the margin side of the story look like when, when we have that true embedded service line? Um, are there any metrics that you're seeing resonate with CFOs and service line leaders that you talk to?
Yeah, I mean, I think let's start with, why do we focus on maternal care? Why do we wanna put all of our sort of marketing spend on women? Because they're d- the decision makers of the family, right? We all know all of this.
So if we're being proactive and we're engaging these women and we're saying, "Hey, I think maybe you're not okay, and that's okay.
We wanna support you and your family", boy, there's a lot to be said about gaining trust with that patient, but more importantly, they're gonna be very, very loyal, right? And if we wanna gain that woman because she's the healthcare decision maker, well, gee, let's do a lot to help gain her loyalty, right? So engaging patients in this way and being really proactive and helping them feel seen, 'cause that's sort of what this, you know, customer survey that we did said, is that women aren't feeling seen.
We're feeling overwhelmed, right? If we say, "No, I see you, and I'm here for you, and it's okay to feel like that", the lifetime patient value that we're gonna get And the retention of patients is, is huge, right? Behavioral health is a retention strategy that's gonna lead to future primary care, specialty care, ancillary, procedural revenue for the health system.
Monetizing existing patient relationships rather than paying to acquire new patients, right? I mean, how much are you spending trying to shift market share? Move the dollars to go ahead and work on retaining patients.
And oh, by the way, like, you feel good about it 'cause it's the right thing to do.
Um, and the margin story is about that increased reimbursable services while doing the right thing, reducing leakage, supporting the overall ecosystem by getting loyalty from the patients that we're targeting with all of our marketing spend.
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