Digital psychological well being platform Cerebral introduced it is letting go of 15% of its workforce in its third spherical of layoffs since final summer season.
In a LinkedIn post, the corporate’s CEO David Mou confirmed the layoffs, saying the discount was a enterprise resolution to align with firm wants and never related to particular person efficiency.
“As a younger firm, we grew shortly to assist a quickly rising affected person depend and to handle increasing medical wants, particularly by the pandemic. Workforce reductions are extremely onerous, particularly for these impacted immediately. We can be providing varied advantages to assist our impacted colleagues as a lot as attainable. Those that are affected have my deepest gratitude for all they’ve contributed to Cerebral and its vital mission,” he wrote.
In an e-mail to MobiHealthNews, an organization spokesperson mentioned the layoffs are a fruits of Cerebral’s reorganization plans, and “affected staff can be totally supported with prolonged severance pay and advantages, in addition to outplacement providers.”
In response to Business Insider, which first reported the information, the layoffs have an effect on roughly 285 staff.
THE LARGER TREND
Cerebral, which launched in 2020, has confronted a plethora of scrutiny inside the final 12 months, together with its prescribing practices, social media marketing, treatment of employees and data sharing practices.
In early Could, the corporate obtained a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Jap District of New York for attainable violations of the Managed Substances Act over its prescribing practices for medicines equivalent to Adderall.
Shortly thereafter, the corporate paused its prescriptions of managed substances then weeks later mentioned it might completely stop prescribing managed substances to new and current sufferers. It subsequently introduced a transformation plan that included reviewing its medical and advertising practices.
In June, the WSJ reported the Federal Trade Commission was investigating whether or not Cerebral was concerned in misleading or unfair advertising or promoting practices.
Weeks later, Bloomberg reported the corporate laid off 350 individuals. In October, Cerebral cut another 20% of its staff, affecting staff throughout the corporate, together with at headquarters and amongst medical care workers and assist employees.
Final month, bipartisan senators sent Cerebral, together with two different digital well being corporations, letters expressing issues over the suppliers’ information sharing practices, urging the businesses to higher defend customers’ healthcare information.
