Episode Description
In this episode of Neural Compass, host Mark Jacobstein sits down with Harry Ritter — founder and CEO of Alma — for a conversation about why the mental health system is broken in ways that are structural, not accidental, and what it actually takes to build something better inside it.
The origin story starts with a full-time intern at Oscar Health whose only job was to call through the insurer's provider directory and confirm that the therapists listed were actually accepting patients. Not matching patients. Not finding therapists. Just verifying that the directory entries were real. That intern's job is now part of Alma's infrastructure.
New episodes every two weeks. This one is for anyone who has ever tried to find a therapist and wondered why it felt like it shouldn't be this hard.
This episode covers:
- Why the private equity rollup model was solving the wrong problem — and what Alma built instead
- How COVID permanently reversed behavioral health's resistance to technology, and why every other specialty snapped back while behavioral health didn't
- Why most uncontrolled chronic disease is actually a behavioral health problem in disguise
- The actuarial trap: why payers agree that treating behavioral comorbidities works and still can't justify the investment
- The North Star Ritter keeps returning to: a primary mental health relationship for everyone, not just people already in crisis
About the Speakers
Mark Jacobstein, Host
is the co-founder and president of Jimini Health. A longtime entrepreneur at the intersection of AI and health tech, he now leads Jimini’s mission to transform mental and behavioral health through clinically grounded, AI-powered care.
Harry Ritter, Guest
is the founder and CEO of Alma, which supports more than 20,000 independent therapists across all 50 states with credentialing, insurance, claims, and patient matching — everything they need to run a private practice without becoming an employee of one.
He came to it through two paths at once: years at Oscar Health watching insurance networks break down, and years as a solo caregiver for his father, managing anticipatory grief the way a primary care physician would — not at all, until his wife suggested therapy.
He recommends The Innovator's Prescription by Clayton Christensen.
For healthcare executives, researchers, investors, and anyone who thinks the mental health crisis deserves serious answers — this is the show.