rehabResearch announcement · No advertising.
Rehab.ai Is Funding a Study to Put More Behavioral Health Dollars Into Care
A better mental health system should make care easier to find, easier to afford, and easier to deliver. We are funding the research to help build it.
Rehab.ai is funding the Behavioral Health Advertising & Care Study to measure what the industry spends reaching people and determine what could change if more of those resources supported treatment itself.
The purpose is practical: identify opportunities to strengthen providers, reduce costs for patients and families, and fund care directly. The study will examine advertising, paid placement, and lead generation alongside the cost and effectiveness of other ways to connect people with treatment.
Build the system around the person.
When someone reaches out for help, the system should make the next step clearer. A provider’s ability to be found should reflect useful information about the care they offer. Technology should help people make that connection.
That conviction runs through Rehab.ai’s mission and founder Patrick Nagle’s Building a Better Mental Health System: use technology to make care more understandable and strengthen the human relationships that sustain it. This study adds a concrete economic question: how can the money surrounding care do more for the people who need it?
By the numbers
Advertising spending. Unmet need.
$558.8M
Advertising and marketing
BetterHelp’s advertising and marketing expense in 2024, reported by Teladoc Health. Excludes stock-based compensation; includes more than media purchases. [1]
29.5M
Adults without treatment
U.S. adults who had a mental illness in the past year and received no mental health treatment in 2024. Source: SAMHSA. [2]
65.2%
Cost was a concern
Of U.S. adults with past-year mental illness who received no treatment and felt they needed it in 2024, 65.2% said treatment would cost too much. [2]
The spending figure describes one business segment, not the industry. The survey figures describe U.S. adults. These are context for the study, not evidence that advertising caused the treatment gap or that all marketing spending can be redirected.
The wider cost is substantial. The World Health Organization estimates that depression and anxiety cause US$1 trillion in lost productivity globally each year. Better access matters to individuals, families, workplaces, and communities. [3]
Follow the dollars. Measure the outcomes.
The research will map advertising and acquisition costs, examine the access they generate, and model realistic alternatives. It will test what reallocating part of that spending could mean for clinical capacity, out-of-pocket costs, treatment starts, retention, and patient-reported wellbeing.
We will account for the cost of alternative discovery channels and the risk that reducing advertising could reduce access. Published scenarios will show their assumptions and uncertainty. Measured outcomes will be identified separately from projections.
Researchers: lead the work.
We are hiring a research lead with expertise in health economics, health services research, or applied quantitative methods. We welcome research teams, analysts, statisticians, behavioral health clinicians, and provider finance specialists who can turn complex evidence into practical decisions. Rehab.ai is funding the work; the selected team will help establish the protocol, scope, budget, and timeline.
Treatment centers: build this with us.
Addiction treatment centers and mental health providers are invited to join the study. Independent practices, nonprofit and public programs, and multi-site organizations are welcome, including providers with little or no advertising spending.
Your experience will help make the questions useful and the findings relevant to real care. Participation may include contributing aggregate financial and operational information under an agreed research protocol. Register your interest to discuss participation; data-sharing terms will be established separately.
Clear principles. Public findings.
Rehab.ai is built on three principles: data-driven discovery, zero advertising fees, and continuous improvement. This research puts those principles to work. We will publish the methods, findings, and limitations, including conclusions that challenge our assumptions.
Rehab.ai’s role as funder and its no-advertising model will be disclosed. Researchers must retain independent judgment. Participation will not affect directory placement, and confidential provider or patient information will be protected under the agreed protocol.
Better information can improve a search. Better allocation of resources can help strengthen a system. We are funding this study to establish where that opportunity exists and what it would take to realize it.
About Rehab.ai
Rehab.ai is a care discovery platform that brings together data, technology, and human connection to help people find addiction treatment and mental health care. Direct access to providers. No advertising. No paid placement. No sale of leads.
Media inquiries: contact@rehab.ai
Sources and perspective
- Teladoc Health 2024 Annual Report, BetterHelp segment results, pp. 67–68. Historical 2024 benchmark; advertising and marketing expense excludes stock-based compensation.
- SAMHSA, Results from the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, pp. 52–53, published July 2025. National survey estimates, not counts of people denied care. Cost is a self-reported reason among adults with perceived unmet need who received no treatment.
- World Health Organization, Mental health at work. The US$1 trillion estimate concerns annual global productivity losses from depression and anxiety, not treatment spending or recoverable advertising dollars.
- Patrick Nagle, Building a Better Mental Health System, updated September 6, 2026. Founder perspective, not a research finding.
Sources reviewed September 23, 2026. Read About Rehab.ai and our general announcement.