Our Commitment

Seattle Anxiety Specialists, PLLC was founded in 2016 with the goal of improving the mental health of those suffering from anxiety and anxiety-related disorders. Since then, our practice has grown into a team of 20+ psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, clinical interns, and support staff that provide a wide range of services.

Despite our growth, we remain committed to maintaining employee-ownership.

Our practice is 100% owned and operated by two clinicians who work full-time within our practice:

• Medical Director - Evelyn Nelson, M.D.

• Executive Director - Blake Thompson, LMHC

We will remain employee-owned to preserve our autonomy from corporate healthcare interests, to ensure that no third party inserts themselves and their interests in your mental health treatment, and so we can ensure that we can achieve the best possible mental health outcome for you.

Maintaining full ownership of our practice also means that we can fully guide the direction and future of Seattle Anxiety Specialists, continue to offer programs to help the community, such as through our Clinical Internship program, Low-Fee Therapy program, and continue to publish within our expansive, free online Resource Library.

Employee ownership used to be the norm

THE HILL (2023) notes that over the last decade, private equity firms have spent nearly $1 trillion to purchase roughly 8,000 health care practices.[1] As TIME (2023) explains, “As private equity absorbs a larger and larger share of the U.S. medical system, ownership of facilities becomes more concentrated and less accountable to patients and regulators.” In addition, researchers at Columbia University found that across 55 studies, increased costs to patients and declines in quality and patient-satisfaction scores occurred in private equity-owned facilities.[2] Specifically regarding costs, contributors at THE HILL found that private equity firms “aim to secure high returns on their investments — upwards of 20 percent in just three to five years — which can conflict with the goal of delivering affordable, accessible, high-value health care.” In terms of quality, nationwide analyses conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School (2023) found that private equity takeovers not only negatively affect the quality of patient care in hospitals but that these key measures of safety and quality were deemed preventable.[3]

REFERENCES

1 Singh, W. & Whaley, C. (December 21, 2023). Private equity is buying up health care, but the real problem is why doctors are selling? THE HILL. https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/4365741-private-equity-is-buying-up-health-care-but-the-real-problem-is-why-doctors-are-selling/

2 Weiss, H. (July 31, 2023). What Happens When Private Equity Buys Your Doctor’s Office? TIME. https://time.com/6299770/private-equity-health-care-impact/

3 Miller, J. (December 26, 2023). What Happens When Private Equity Takes Over a Hospital. Harvard Medical School. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/what-happens-when-private-equity-takes-over-hospital