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#BetterHelp

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@npr @health-npr this is hardly something to cheer about when you realize that if you’re doing talk therapy on an app you might be talking to AI, if you’re using #BetterHelp they probably aren’t a licensed therapist if they are even a person and not AI.

And meds are being withheld from people who need them because SOME people abuse meds.

This is #enshittification of mental health services.

I have never used #BetterHelp but I am now convinced that very few of their therapists are actually people.

I assume the therapist who used the toilet while doing a video session with a client was a person, and I’m willing to bet that the therapist she’s talking about in this video is an overseas admin assistant who screwed up copying and pasting. So a human, but not a therapist.

But if you are texting with a better health therapist that you have never seen, why wouldn’t it be AI? What a great profit center!

youtu.be/NZvDbxhb70A

It’s wild that people keep advertising Betterhelp. Especially in the volatile political climate we’re entering.

If you have a primary care doctor or other healthcare professional you trust, ask them for a referral to a licensed therapist.

After the millionth YouTube channel plugging the online therapy service BetterHelp I thought I would Google "is BetterhHelp any good" and oh boy what a shit show.

Lots of stories about questionable sharing of data about service use with advertisers and very unethical behavior by their therapists. Reddit is a goldmine of bad user experiences.

jezebel.com/the-spooky-loosely

newsweek.com/betterhelp-patien

ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog

reddit.com/r/TalkTherapy/searc

I email my insurance company and ask them if they'll cover #BetterHelp.
They respond, "Better Help is not on our list of in-network providers."
I respond like this, albeit slightly more politely: bitch, I didn't ask if they're in-network. I'm on a PPO HDHP exactly because your therapy network sucks and I want my family to be able to get reimbursed for any therapist.
We'll see what they say.
(Please, no replies about how BetterHelp is evil. I know. I'm kinda desperate.)
#healthInsurance #therapy

Continued thread

I know that if a person gives away their information to a non-medical website, then it's not technically #PHI anymore. But #BetterHelp presented itself as complying with healthcare rules.

They used language that made it sound like they were #HIPAA compliant.

They specifically deceived me into giving them information that I wouldn't have if they had not presented themselves as being a healthcare organization.

The penalty for this should be the complete dissolution of BetterHelp.

I've been getting emails about an #FTC #settlement with #BetterHelp:

"The FTC says that BetterHelp promised to keep users’ information private but revealed data to Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Criteo for advertising purposes. This data included email addresses, IP addresses, and **personal answers to health questions**."

For sharing #PHI, apparently, they're going to send me a check for a few bucks!?! WTF?

That's the only punishment?

Using #BetterHelp was the second time I actually got myself to go to #therapy. It was the height of the pandemic in 2020 and I didn't want to leave home. The therapist was better than the one I had seen in person previously. It wasn't life-changing and I didn't stay for very long, but it did help.

Also, the whole thing is a massive fraud and just a scheme to collect private health info and sell it to advertisers. I'm sure they exploited and underpaid their therapists as well. Fuck BetterHelp.

Lemme get this straight, #BetterHelp helped themselves to $80 out of my account every month for several months while I dealt with undiagnosed #ADHD with no help from them (kinda hard to get treatment when *you* have to initiate all of the communication and you have raging ADHD). The US FTC sued them and all I get back is $9.70?

Good grief.

OH SNAP, they got sued for selling customer's data TO FACEBOOK. WOW! WHAT A PARAGON OF VIRTUE.

BetterHelp. More like GetShafted.