Trevor Colhoun on Fixing Behavioral Health’s Broken Infrastructure | Ep 1210

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Digital Executive – Trevor Colhoun on Fixing Behavioral Health’s Broken Infrastructure

Host: Brian (Coruzant Technologies)
Guest: Trevor Colquhoun, CEO & Founder, TPN Health
Release: March 13, 2026
Episode: 1210

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Episode Theme

A candid conversation with Trevor Colquhoun, founder and CEO of TPN Health, about transforming the infrastructure of behavioral healthcare. Trevor delves into why the system is so broken—focusing on lack of coordination, value transparency, and data—and how TPN Health is rebuilding clinical trust and improving outcomes through technology, rigorous credentialing, and human-centric care navigation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Founding Motivation: Personal Experience & Market Gaps

• Trevor’s inspiration was deeply personal, stemming from a family member’s difficult journey navigating behavioral health and addiction treatment.
• He witnessed firsthand how analog, opaque, and unorganized the industry is, especially compared to other areas of healthcare.
• Major takeaways:
  • The principal issues in behavioral health are stigma, access, and especially the lack of a clear value proposition—patients have no reliable understanding of costs, expected recovery, or treatment duration.
• Notable Quote:

  "That was really the big aha. That is the question that we're trying to answer in behavioral health." (Trevor Colquhoun, 02:11)

• Timestamp: [02:11]

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Bringing Clinical Infrastructure & Transparency

• TPN Health’s initial approach was to create a “bespoke LinkedIn” for behavioral health clinicians—digitizing provider profiles, facilitating connections, referrals, and validating credentials against state boards.
• This allows real-time aggregation of accurate data around provider specialty, geography, availability, and connectivity.
• TPN then surfaces this data to payers, bridging the critical transparency gap in the market.
• Notable Quote:

  “By providing them with a lot of digital utility in a digital home, we're able to thus collectively take them and bring this information to payers. So payers know who's available, what's going on...” (Trevor Colquhoun, 05:06)

• Timestamp: [05:06]

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Balancing Tech & Clinical Integrity

• While many startups focus tech-first, TPN places clinical standards and trust at the core, recognizing the behavioral health industry’s justified skepticism of tech disruption.
• Their innovation transforms previously analog processes into scaled digital actions—credentialing, continuing education, referrals—ensuring quality and compliance at every step.
• Trevor draws a parallel with financial markets where data underpins innovation, contrasting it with behavioral health’s historical data desert.
• AI Use Policy:
  • TPN uses AI and digital agents for administrative efficiency only—never for direct clinical interventions.
  • They believe strongly that therapeutic care must remain strictly human-led.
• Notable Quote:

  “We don't condone support using artificial intelligence or those processes... with the member life or the patient. But we do use agents within to optimize the process and efficiencies of connectivity.” (Trevor Colquhoun, 08:06)

• Timestamp: [08:06]

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“Black Market” Dynamics & TPN’s Gen3 Solution

• Trevor candidly describes current behavioral health as resembling a black market: scarcity of in-network providers leads to high cash rates, limited access, and gaps in insurer support.
• TPN Health has achieved a “15% penetration rate” among providers—a significant milestone leading to:
  • Higher, faster payments for providers
  • Lower claim denials
  • 15% year-over-year cost reduction for payers
  • Direct match of patients with licensed, tech-enabled human care navigators via SMS—not just a directory, but real guidance through recovery.
• Outcomes are now tracked at scale, linking improvements in behavioral health to corresponding decreases in physical health costs (e.g., ER visits).
• Notable Quote:

  “Let's look at what behavioral health is right now. It's a black market, right?... If I have a scarcity of supply or in lack of access to supply, meaning providers, then you see submarkets paying cash and paying over rates on cash...” (Trevor Colquhoun, 09:20)

• Timestamp: [09:20]

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The Future: Transparent Value & Systemic Improvements

• TPN’s model directly benefits three main groups:
  • Providers: Better pay, faster payment, reduced administrative friction
  • Payers: Real-time network transparency, cost savings, improved outcome tracking
  • Patients: Guided navigation, increased access, more reliable care pathways, reduced stigma
• Growth highlights: 20% increase in provider network size in the past year.
• Trevor envisions a near future where outcomes and costs are transparent and measurable for all, helping eradicate stigmas and disincentivizing systemic workarounds.
• Notable Quote:

  “Member lives can now feel comfortable to participate in insurance... get the services they need and start to understand the value proposition ...driven by professionals through this process.” (Trevor Colquhoun, 13:54)

• Timestamp: [13:54]

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Memorable Moments

• Trevor’s forthright labeling of behavioral health as a “black market” (09:20)
• Commitment to “never” using AI for therapy, keeping humans at the center (08:06)
• Introduction of SMS-based care navigation—emphasizing that vulnerable patients need a real human connection, not just digital information (11:40)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:11] – Trevor’s personal journey and insight into the industry’s value gap
• [05:06] – Digital infrastructure and impact for clinicians and payers
• [08:06] – On AI use: operational efficiencies vs. clinical roles
• [09:20] – Why behavioral health replicates black market mechanics
• [11:40] – The role of tech-enabled human care navigators
• [13:54] – The impact for providers, payers, and patients; vision for the future

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Conclusion

This episode delivers a concise, visionary look at behavioral health reform from the front lines. Trevor Colquhoun outlines a future where clinical trust, digital connectivity, and human navigation reshape an under-served field. Listeners leave with clarity on why change is overdue—and how platforms like TPN Health are finally closing the gap.

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Transcript

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[Brian (Host)]

Welcome to Corusant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast. Do you work in emerging tech? Working on something innovative? Maybe an entrepreneur? Apply to be a guest at www.corazant.com brand. Welcome to the Digital Executive. Today's guest is Trevor Colquhoun. Trevor Colquhoun is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of TPN Health, a national clinician network and care navigation platform dedicated to strengthening the quality, integrity and accessibility

[Commercial Narrator]

of behavioral health care.

[Brian (Host)]

Trevor founded TPN Health with a clear mission to build infrastructure that elevates clinical standards while expanding access to high quality mental health and addiction treatment. He recognized that despite the growing demand for behavioral health services, the system lacked alignment between providers, organizations and patients. TPN Health was created to close that gap by rigorously credentialing clinicians, supporting evidence based care, and enabling trusted partnerships across the continuum of care. Well, good afternoon Trevor. Welcome to the show.

[Trevor Colquhoun (Guest)]

Thank you, Brian. Excited to be here?

[Brian (Host)]

Absolutely, my friend. I appreciate it. I know you're in New Orleans. You travel a lot. I'm in Kansas City. So I just appreciate you making the time today. I know it's hard to traverse diverse calendars, especially the farther apart we are. So again, I am so grateful for you and Trevor, if you don't mind, I'm going to jump right in. You founded TPN Health to strengthen the quality and accessibility of behavioral health care. What experiences or observations in the industry led you to start the company and pursue this mission?

[Trevor Colquhoun (Guest)]

First, it was a personal journey of a family member that went down a pretty significant behavioral health process related to facility needs and addiction. And through that I really saw through the lens of how analog and unorganized this space was. And I think some of the interesting things that we learned, which is really, you know, before we even started the company was really just thinking about behavioral health and what are the issues as most people talk about stigma, most people talk about access. And really we learned that the issue of behavioral health is the value proposition where behavioral health doesn't really demonstrate a value proposition in terms of I have a Behavioral health issue. I need to enter into the market, I need to see a therapist. I need to understand how many times I need to see that therapist until I get recovery. And if I can't answer those questions, then I don't really know what the cost is. And so I'm not going to enter that market. So those are the. That was really the big aha. That is the question that we're trying to answer in behavioral health. Yeah.

[Brian (Host)]

And that's really tough. I've been in health care on the tech side for many years and got to work and help manage organizations that had large behavioral health centers or connected to. And that was certainly a challenge.

[Trevor Colquhoun (Guest)]

But what I like about this is

[Brian (Host)]

right off the bat, this personal experience you talked about your journey, as you called it, in behavioral health, what is that value prop? Because it is tough. You don't know what the costs are to manage and run an organization like this. And there's a lot of stigma behind it. And a lot of things come with behavioral health, not just mental health issues, but sometimes addiction, et cetera. And I'm just very excited to hear more about this, but also very, very grateful for people like you that are trying to make the world a better place. So thank you. Trevor, if I jump to the next question here, TPN Health focuses heavily on clinician credentialing and quality oversight. Why is building trusted clinical infrastructure so critical for improving outcomes in mental health and addiction treatment?

[Trevor Colquhoun (Guest)]

Well, it goes even further back. So when you look at as we talk about the issue being the inability to show value based care or value proposition for behavioral health services to the market, meaning I as a payer don't understand what the value prop is if I pay into the market and what the outcomes they're going to be if I send my insured life through or I even individually paying for myself. I don't understand. There's not transparency, access, connectivity into the market. So as we entered the market, we identified the most important group in behavioral health being the individual provider. So when we first started on TPN, we essentially built a bespoke LinkedIn for behavioral health providers. To them have a user account, connect, engage, refer to each other. And through that process, as they come on, we verify them against their state licensure boards. So they might be licensed in many boards. And essentially credentialing them through that process, we also offer a tremendous amount of continued education for them to maintain and advance themselves as an individual provider. But the result of that activity. So really the behavioral science of the marketplace Industry is we've allowed individual providers in aggregation to digitize them on this platform and thus have extreme accurate data real time on their availability, the demographics they serve, the geographic area they serve, are they credentialed, who are they connected with? And by providing them with a lot of digital utility in a digital home, we're able to thus collectively take them and bring this information to payers. So payers know who's available, what's going on, who's insured, who's this, that, the other. So really bringing transparency to the market, which this market completely lacked. So it lacked that infrastructure and that's, that's the nexus of tpn.

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[Brian (Host)]

That's awesome. And you're absolutely right. We talked about the first question is it is really hard to show this value prop in behavioral health. This just the system in general, there's lack of access, a lot of questions, lack of connectivity, transparency, et cetera. So the value prop is hard to really uncover there. But you've been able to digitally connect everybody and make this easier, including the payers, so that you can have some insights on what's going on. But that digital connection is so important in this space. Trevor, many digital health startups focus on technology first, but you emphasize clinical credibility and ethical practice standards. How do you balance innovation with maintaining rigorous clinical integrity?

[Trevor Colquhoun (Guest)]

Well, I think that first it's the process and especially in this market as behavioral health providers, it's the process of, of building a digital relationship and trust. This is an industry that. So it was an easy decision for us. This is an industry that doesn't trust the new player hasn't really been able to connect and engage at scale or in any way with the insurance market. And so when we think about leveraging and enabling technology, we think about how do we take an analog action into a digital action and do it at scale and really run that provider's life through the process. AI if that's where you're going to kind of think and talk about really cut its teeth significantly at scale in the financial markets because data is ubiquitous and readily available and no one really owns, for the most part, that data, except for maybe some of the large warehouses or exchanges. But it's easy to get that data. You know, for behavior health there isn't data, right? There isn't that connectivity. So we're both mining that data and aggregating that data and then providing access to actually make some of those smart decisions. Now we, you didn't ask this, but we don't condone support using artificial intelligence or those processes or agents in therapeutic modalities or interventions with the member life or the, or the patient. But we do use agents within to optimize the process and efficiencies of connectivity.

[Brian (Host)]

Thank you, Appreciate your insights there. The process of building this, as you called it, this digital relationship and trust is so important in this industry. Industry is hard to crack. But you looked at this differently. I think you mentioned taking an analog approach to a digital way to do this. You go in there, you pull that data together, you do the mining, aggregating and providing the data. Again, doing that digital connectivity to bring things to light. So the process is smoother and there's more transparency. And I do appreciate that. And Trevor, the last question of the day as we look ahead to the future. How do you see behavioral health care evolving over the next Dec and what role will platforms like TPN Health play in shaping a more accessible, accountable system of care?

[Trevor Colquhoun (Guest)]

Well, you know, let's look at what behavioral health is right now. It's a black market, right? It's. And it has the same aspects of a black market. So if I don't have, if I have a scarcity of supply or in lack of access to supply, meaning providers, then you see submarkets paying cash and paying over rates on cash or driving that demand. So you really see that happening in the behavioral health market where providers tend to mostly just take cash and be outside of the insurance network. And so the pain points that are occurring in the traditional insurance market is we are as employee people or maybe buyers of insurance already paying for behavioral health services. But we're not receiving the access because the inability to produce accurate databases and accurate provider networks to these member lives. So where this is going is quite exciting. In behavior health, we think that this is really where we're driving is this Gen3 process, a Gen3 network and connectivity and behavior health where we'll have the access and connectivity to the providers. We're already about 15% penetration rate to the overall market on the provider side. But with that penetration, we're able to pay the provider more And a more because we contract them on our paper so we're able to contract them at a higher rate in return because we directly connect the provider to the payer and we handle all of the what is traditionally seen in the marketplace of vendor services of credentialing and adjudication and attestation and network compliance, adequacy and accuracy. And I go on and on about all these vendors that help out this process. We cut that completely out. And so by cutting that out we're able to increase the pay on paper to the provider. We're able to pay them faster through an insurance process less than 15 days, we're able to lower the deniability of claims. And then on the the payer side we're instantly able to lower their aggregate behavior of cost year over year from us to what they were the prior year by 15%. That also doesn't include things we haven't talked about where we do not provide directories to member lives. We provide tech enabled human care licensed care navigators to human lives to help them drive them through the clinical path to recovery. That also reduces costs significantly because they get direct access to care navigators that drive them away from high cost realms that they might choose to fall into. On behavioral health issues like emergency rooms, primary care docs and other areas. We, we, we catch them in the, in the member lives right away. We directly connect with them. They all have an SMS text number they can text into if they're in our network on the member life side. And then lastly, which is very exciting, we're very excited about Brian is the outcome. So I talked earlier about the value prop and value proposition really comes when you have connectivity data and the analysis of those two things. And now that we're able to do this at scale and take hundreds of thousands of lives up to millions of lives and track their outcomes through this process which will be unconnected to the provider. So the provider's do not have to be involved in this process. We actually track the lives through, through our SMS and engagement. We can actually start to measure individually how providers are doing. We're able to measure not only how the life is improving through the process the human being but also how the payer can actually track the cost that they save not only with their behavior health costs, but then also bleeding into how this saves out of their physical health costs, you know, the hospital bills, the of that nature. So we're quite excited and not far away from that reality at all and tpn. And so the main result and Winner. You've got three constituents here, you've got the payers, which is a big group in different categories. You've got the providers and then you've got the member lives. But at this point, the member lives can now feel comfortable to participate in insurance, in with their networks to get the services they need and start to understand the value proposal position of this because they're driven by professionals through this process. And so we're quite excited about the future of behavioral health. We're excited about where we're positioned and our growth has been tremendous in terms of providers that are joining the movement if you will, or joining us in our network to grow. We've already grown 20% this year alone from last year in terms of the size of our provider network. So it's, it's an exciting future for all that participate with us.

[Brian (Host)]

That's awesome. That's a success story for sure. Just to highlight a few things, I

[Commercial Narrator]

know as you call it, behavioral health

[Brian (Host)]

is kind of like a black market. And with that lack of supply providers and services, it does create high demand and then people start to circumvent the process and pay by cash, et cetera. But those pain points, the lack of data, the lack of those networks and providers, you were able to really bring that all together and provide a bit better payment structure for providers, faster turnaround on payments and provide the payer information they need to process the claims. In the end, this is my favorite part, that reduction in cost improve efficiency increases not only the services but the outcome for the patient. And that's where I get really excited. As you know, I was in health care a long time. So thank you so much for that. And Trevor, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.

[Trevor Colquhoun (Guest)]

Well Brian, I'm grateful for the opportunity for us to talk about this and just thank you for that.

[Brian (Host)]

Bye for now.

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