For much of the past decade, the psychedelic industry has revolved around companies developing the drugs themselves. Psilocybin, MDMA, LSD and newer psychedelic compounds have attracted significant investment, with businesses racing to demonstrate that these substances can become viable medicines.
As the sector moves towards clinical use, opportunities are also emerging around the treatments themselves.
Homecoming is one company pursuing that market, with a focus on the patient screening process that sits at the beginning of psychedelic treatment.
The US startup has developed a platform designed to help clinicians assess whether a patient is an appropriate candidate for treatment. Its system combines validated psychological assessments with a structured clinical interview and produces a draft clinical report for review by a clinician.
The aim is to give clinicians a more structured process for collecting and documenting the information required during assessment.
Homecoming does not position the technology as a replacement for clinical judgement. The clinician remains responsible for reviewing the assessment and determining whether a patient is suitable for treatment. The platform is designed to organise the information and reduce some of the administrative work involved.
There is also a commercial model built around the assessment process.
Homecoming has developed its service around the US healthcare reimbursement system, where qualifying psychological assessment services can be billed using existing CPT codes. The company says partner clinics have historically generated between US$500 and US$1,000 per patient in paid claims, although the amount varies according to factors including the payer, contractual arrangements and hours billed.
For clinics, that potentially turns part of the screening process into a reimbursable service rather than an entirely administrative expense.
Homecoming says its methodology has been developed over more than two decades and has been used to screen more than 2,200 clients. The company is now part of the inaugural cohort of Elephant Gate, a venture programme focused on startups working across psychedelic medicine and mental health.
The company’s focus highlights one of the less discussed challenges facing psychedelic medicine as it moves beyond clinical trials.
A psychedelic treatment can involve considerably more than the administration of a drug. Patients may require psychological and medical screening before treatment, preparation sessions with clinicians, monitoring during the intervention and follow-up afterwards.
Clinics also need to manage appointments, clinical documentation, billing, practitioner workflows and patient outcomes.
Those requirements are creating opportunities for businesses that provide technology and services around psychedelic care.
Patient screening is one area. Reimbursement, patient management, clinical data, outcome tracking and continuity of care are others.
Homecoming’s focus on the US reimbursement system is particularly relevant because the economics of psychedelic treatment will depend partly on how clinics are able to pay for the services involved. A platform that can support a reimbursable assessment has a different commercial proposition from software that simply saves a clinician some administrative time.
As psychedelic therapies progress through regulatory processes, these operational questions will become increasingly important.
A treatment can demonstrate efficacy in a clinical trial without necessarily having a straightforward path into everyday healthcare. Clinics still need appropriate assessment procedures, qualified staff, documentation systems, payment mechanisms and processes for managing patients before and after treatment.
This is where companies such as Homecoming are positioning themselves.
The market extends beyond screening. Companies can build products for clinical-trial management, patient coordination, reimbursement, outcome measurement, neurotechnology and the longer-term management of psychedelic-assisted care.
Much of the attention in psychedelic business has understandably focused on drug development. The companies building around the treatment are operating in a different part of the market, selling tools and services to the clinics, practitioners and healthcare organisations that will ultimately deliver the therapies.
Homecoming’s position at the front end of the patient journey gives it a relatively specific entry point into that market.
Before a patient receives a psychedelic treatment, someone needs to establish whether that treatment is appropriate and document the clinical decision. As treatment becomes more structured and potentially more widely available, the systems supporting that process will need to keep pace.
For Homecoming, that is the business opportunity.
The company is not trying to develop the next psychedelic medicine. It is building part of the infrastructure that could be required to deliver those medicines within the healthcare system.
