SIMS Foundation Resumes Services After 90-Day Pause

After a sudden 90-day service pause, musicians' mental health nonprofit the SIMS Foundation resumed operations on Feb. 3, reconnecting clients with healthcare providers and introducing a new service plan based on household income and reported financial resources.

SIMS paused its counseling, psychiatric care, and substance abuse recovery services for nearly all of its 500-plus clients from November through January due to financial issues. In December, client Britny Lobas underwent surgery for an alcohol-related health issue, which left her without financial support for the procedure.

“It was very unexpected, and kind of like an oh shit moment,” Lobas says of the pause. “Like, ‘What's gonna happen?’ It was really scary.”

Before her surgery, Lobas had been seeing her SIMS-appointed therapist, Joann Martillotti-Cartwright. Despite the service pause and Martillotti-Cartwright’s practice not accepting Lobas’ Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, the therapist continued working with her.

“SIMS has saved my life, and I’m forever grateful for them,” Lobas says. “That will never change. I was definitely taken aback by the pause and was just grateful that Joann was willing to still work with me.”

Lobas says she didn’t hear from SIMS about its service model changes until the morning of Feb. 19. “Currently, there's just some confusion, and we're trying to navigate and figure out how to proceed,” she says. “I'm just really glad that they're back.”

Martillotti-Cartwright does not accept insurance and says that while she was able to continue working with Lobas, she could no longer see other clients from SIMS due to the organization’s recommendation that clients utilize insurance during the pause.

“I was no longer working with the clients I’m truly passionate about helping,” Martillotti-Cartwright says. “I'm glad that they were able to receive other services. I know how difficult it is sometimes for clients to switch mental health providers so quickly.”

When she first joined SIMS a decade ago, clients were matched with providers based on compatibility, rather than insurance. Clients would pay a co-pay, and SIMS would cover the remainder of the negotiated fee.

“It’s certainly a prudent thing to do,” Martillotti-Cartwright says of the new care model. “It’s challenging for providers like me because it means only a portion of SIMS clients are eligible for my services.”

Following a multi-year review of current and former clients, CEO Derrick Lesnau tells the Chronicle that SIMS found over 80% already had a healthcare plan but had never explored available mental health resources within their coverage. To address this, SIMS will determine where clients fall on the federal poverty line and request a co-pay ranging from $15 to $50, covering the remaining costs charged by the healthcare provider.

“We are being deliberate with reviewing the resources that our incoming clients have at their disposal,” Lesnau says. “Really drilling into what their income is and categorizing where they fall on the federal poverty line so that we can determine how much supplemental financial assistance makes sense for us to support their care.”

Previously, incoming clients had to complete a lengthy intake assessment form, which was then repeated when connecting with a healthcare provider. To streamline this process, Lesnau says SIMS is revising the form and developing an online portal that both healthcare providers and clients can access to review information.

“That's a longer process than that 90-day period,” Lesnau says. “We've contacted the company that we're moving towards, but it's said that migration is probably going to take another six months.”

Lobas recently filmed testimonial videos for SIMS, where she had the opportunity to meet new members of the foundation's team.

“They seem to have a whole new team of people,” Lobas says. “That felt really wonderful. They seemed really excited and passionate, and they got their heads on straight, really just diving in.”

SIMS launched a fundraising campaign called Restore the Rhythm in November to help quell its financial issues, and said in December that donations from the revived Armadillo World Headquarters brand and concert promotion company C3 Presents helped it restore services to its “most vulnerable clients” during the ongoing pause. The campaign has raised $233,914 of its $500,000 goal as of this writing.

“We really want to come out of this transition period with a renewed sense of who we are, why we're here, and why the community needs us,” Lesnau says. “The tweaks we've made to the service model are really going to benefit folks moving forward, allowing us to not only provide better care but extend care to more people by being a little more diligent and deliberate in how we supplement care with our limited funds.”