Cerebral promoted or sold subscription services offering online mental health treatment and medication management to hundreds of thousands of patients, according to a Nov. 4 Justice Department news release. Between 2019 and 2022, the company expanded its offerings to include controlled substances and stimulant medications, such as Adderall.
Between February 2021 and October 2022, Cerebral implemented internal measures to increase medication prescriptions, aiming to boost revenue and patient retention. The company sought to raise the initial visit prescription rate to 95% and the ADHD stimulant prescription rate to nearly 100%.
These metrics did not account for whether patients had conditions that warranted medication. Cerebral also lacked effective controls to prevent drug diversion, with thousands of duplicate patient accounts left unaddressed until at least early 2022. As a result, at least one patient obtained stimulant prescriptions from multiple providers at Cerebral, and patients not prescribed controlled substances were sometimes reassigned to different providers.
As part of the agreement, Cerebral agreed to pay $3.65 million and continue cooperating with U.S. authorities for at least 30 months.
