LifeStance Health Group, Inc. (LFST)

Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our audited financial statements and the accompanying notes as well as "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, including those factors set forth under “Risk Factors” Part II, Item 1A in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as well as those discussed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, our actual results could differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.

Unless stated otherwise or the context otherwise requires, the terms "we," "us," "our," "our business," "LifeStance" and "our Company" and similar references refer to LifeStance Health Group, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries and supported practices. References to "our employees" and "our clinicians" refer collectively to employees and clinicians, respectively, of our subsidiaries and supported practices. References to "our patients" refer to the patients treated by such clinicians.

Our Business

We are dedicated to improving the lives of our patients by reimagining mental health through a tech-enabled in-person and virtual care delivery model built to expand access, address affordability, improve outcomes and lower overall healthcare costs. We are one of the nation’s largest outpatient mental health platforms based on the number of clinicians we employ through our subsidiaries and our supported practices and our geographic scale, employing 8,542 licensed mental health clinicians as of June 30, 2026. Our patient-focused platform combines a personalized, digitally-powered patient experience with differentiated clinical capabilities and in-network insurance relationships to fundamentally transform patient access and treatment. By revolutionizing the way mental healthcare is delivered, we believe we have an opportunity to improve the lives and health of millions of individuals.

Our model is built to empower each of the healthcare ecosystem’s key stakeholders—patients, clinicians, payors and primary care and specialist physicians—by aligning around our shared goal of delivering better outcomes for patients and providing high-quality mental healthcare.

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Patients - We are the front-door to comprehensive outpatient mental healthcare. Our clinicians offer patients a full spectrum of outpatient services to treat mental health conditions. Our in-network payor relationships improve patient access by allowing patients to access care without significant out-of-pocket cost or delays in receiving treatment. Our personalized, data-driven comprehensive care meets patients where they are, through convenient virtual and in-person settings. We support our patients throughout their care continuum with purpose-built technological capabilities, including online assessments, digital provider communication, and seamless internal referral and follow-up capabilities.

•
Clinicians - We empower clinicians to focus on patient care and relationships by providing what we believe is a superior workplace environment, as well as clinical and technology capabilities to deliver high-quality care. We offer a unique employment model for clinicians in a collaborative clinical environment, employing our clinicians through our subsidiaries and supported practices. Our integrated platform and national infrastructure reduce administrative burdens for clinicians while increasing engagement and satisfaction.

•
Payors - We partner with payors to deliver access to high-quality outpatient mental healthcare to their members at scale. Through our extensive scale, we offer payors a pathway to reduce overall cost of care in the broader healthcare system while supporting improved physical and mental health outcomes.

•
Primary care and specialist physicians - We collaborate with primary care and specialist physicians to enhance patient care. Primary care is an important setting for the treatment of mental health conditions—primary care physicians are often the sole contact of patients with a mental illness and, in many instances where patients have a chronic condition, specialist physicians step into the role of primary physicians. We partner with primary care physicians and specialist physician groups across the country to provide a mental healthcare network for referrals and, in certain instances, through virtual and physical co-location to improve the diagnosis and treatment of their patients.

Regulatory Trends

On July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (“OBBBA”) was enacted in the U.S. The OBBBA contains a variety of provisions that could impact the healthcare industry with changes to Medicaid programs, including but not limited to, Medicaid renewal and eligibility rules. Additional federal and state guidance is expected to be issued in order to implement these OBBBA provisions, most of which have effective dates in 2027 and 2028. While we serve Medicaid patients, the OBBBA is not expected to have a material impact on our business and results of operations as a result of the changes to the Medicaid programs.

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Key Factors Affecting Our Results

Expanding Center Capacity and Visits Within Existing Centers

We have built a powerful organic growth engine that enables us to drive growth within our existing footprint.

Our Clinicians

As of June 30, 2026, we employed 8,542 psychiatrists, advanced practice nurses, psychologists and therapists through our subsidiaries and supported practices. We generate revenue on a per visit basis (total revenue per visit ("TRPV")) as clinical services are rendered by our clinicians. We generate lower revenue and experience lower clinician productivity in periods that have fewer business days than other periods. We measure productivity by the number of visits that are performed by a clinician, which is driven by the time clinicians make available to see patients and our ability to fill clinicians' schedules by attracting new patients, scheduling patients, and converting scheduled appointments to completed visits. Clinician productivity impacts our ability to generate revenue and also impacts clinician compensation, as clinician compensation is primarily driven by the number of visits provided by each clinician. Recruiting new clinicians and retaining existing clinicians enables us to see more patients by expanding our patient visit capacity.

We believe our dedicated employment model offers a superior value proposition compared to independent practice. Our network relationships provide clinicians with ready access to patients. We also enable clinicians to manage their own patient volumes. Our platform promotes a clinically-driven professional culture and streamlines patient access and care delivery, while optimizing practice administration processes through technology. We believe we are an employer of choice in mental health, allowing us to employ highly qualified clinicians.

We believe we have significant opportunity to grow our employed clinician base from our current base of 8,542 clinicians employed through our subsidiaries and supported practices, as of June 30, 2026. We have developed a rigorous and exclusive in-house national clinician recruiting model that works closely with our regional clinical teams to select the best candidates and expand capacity in a timely manner. As we grow our clinician base, we can grow our business, expand access for our patients and our payors and invest in our platform to further reinforce our differentiated offering to clinicians. We have available physical capacity to add clinicians to our existing centers, as well as an opportunity to add new clinicians with the targeted roll-out of new centers. Our virtual care offering also allows clinicians to see more patients without investments in incremental physical space, expanding our patient visit capacity beyond in-person only levels.

Our Patients

We believe our ability to attract and retain patients to drive growth in our visits and meet the availability of our clinician base will enable us to grow our revenue. We believe we have a significant opportunity to increase the number of patients we serve in our existing markets. Our clinicians treated patients through 2.6 million and 5.1 million visits in the three and six months ended June 30, 2026, respectively. We believe our ability to deliver more accessible, flexible, affordable and effective mental healthcare is a key driver of our patient growth. We believe we provide a superior and differentiated mental healthcare experience that integrates virtual and in-person care to deliver care in a convenient way for our patients, meeting our patients where they are. Our in-network payor relationships allow our patients to access affordable care without significant out-of-pocket cost or delays in receiving treatment. We treat mental health conditions across the outpatient spectrum through a clinical approach that focuses on improved patient outcomes. We support our patients throughout their care continuum with purpose-built technological capabilities, including online assessments, digital provider communication, and seamless internal referral and follow-up capabilities.

We utilize multiple strategies to add new patients to our platform, including our primary care and specialist physician relationships, internal referrals from our clinicians, our payor relationships and our dedicated marketing efforts. We have established a large network of national, regional and local payors that enables their members to be referred to us as patients. Payors refer patients to our platform to drive improvement in health outcomes for their members, reduction in total medical costs and increased member satisfaction and retention. Within our markets, we partner with primary care practice groups, specialists, health systems and academic institutions to refer patients to our centers and clinicians. Our local referral marketing teams build and maintain relationships with our referring partner networks to create awareness of our platform and services, including the opening of new centers and the introduction of newly hired clinicians with appointment availability. We also use online marketing to develop our national brand to increase brand awareness and promote additional channels of patient recruitment.

Our Primary Care and Specialist Physician Referral Relationships

We have built a powerful patient referral network through partnerships with primary care physicians and specialist physician groups across the country. We deliver value to our provider partners by offering more efficient referral pathways, delivering improved outcomes for our shared patients, and enabling more integrated care and lower total healthcare costs. As we continue to scale nationally, we plan to partner with additional hospital systems, large primary care groups and other specialist groups to help streamline their mental health network needs and drive continued patient growth across our platform. Our vision over time is to further integrate our mental healthcare services with those of our medical provider partners. By co-locating and driving toward integration with primary care and specialty providers, we can enhance our c

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes that appear elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition to historical consolidated financial information, the following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates, and beliefs. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the risk and uncertainties described under “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our actual results may differ materially from those contained in or implied by any forward-looking statements. See “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

LifeStance Health Group, Inc. was formed as a Delaware corporation on January 28, 2021 for the purpose of completing an initial public offering ("IPO") and related transactions in order to carry on the business of LifeStance TopCo, L.P. (“LifeStance TopCo”) and its consolidated subsidiaries and supported practices. LifeStance Health Group, Inc. wholly-owns the equity interest of LifeStance TopCo and operates and controls all of the business and affairs and consolidates the financial results of LifeStance TopCo and its wholly owned subsidiaries and supported practices.

Unless stated otherwise or the context otherwise requires, the terms "we", "us", "our business", "LifeStance" and "our Company" and similar references refer to LifeStance Health Group, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries and supported practices. References to "our employees" and "our clinicians" refer collectively to employees and clinicians, respectively, of our subsidiaries and supported practices. References to "our patients" refer to the patients treated by such clinicians.

Our Business

We are reimagining mental health through a tech-enabled care delivery model built to expand access, address affordability, improve outcomes and lower overall healthcare costs. We are one of the nation’s largest outpatient mental health platforms based on the number of clinicians we employ through our subsidiaries and our supported practices and our geographic scale, employing 8,040 licensed mental health clinicians across 33 states as of December 31, 2025. In 2025, our clinicians treated over 1.0 million unique patients through approximately 9.0 million visits. Our patient-focused platform combines a personalized, digitally powered patient experience with differentiated clinical capabilities and in-network insurance relationships to fundamentally transform patient access and treatment. By revolutionizing the way mental healthcare is delivered, we believe we have an opportunity to improve the lives and health of millions of individuals.

Our model is built to empower each of the healthcare ecosystem’s key stakeholders—patients, clinicians, payors and primary care and specialist physicians—by aligning around our shared goal of delivering better outcomes for patients and providing high-quality mental healthcare.

•
Patients - We are the front-door to comprehensive outpatient mental healthcare. Our clinicians offer patients a full spectrum of outpatient services to treat mental health conditions. Our in-network payor relationships improve patient access by allowing patients to access care without significant out-of-pocket cost or delays in receiving treatment. Our personalized, data-driven comprehensive care meets patients where they are, through convenient virtual and in-person settings. We support our patients throughout their care continuum with purpose-built technological capabilities, including online assessments, digital provider communication, and seamless internal referral and follow-up capabilities.

•
Clinicians - We empower clinicians to focus on patient care and relationships by providing what we believe is a superior workplace environment, as well as clinical and technology capabilities to deliver high-quality care. We offer a unique employment model for clinicians in a collaborative clinical environment, employing our clinicians through our subsidiaries and supported practices. Our integrated platform and national infrastructure reduce administrative burdens for clinicians while increasing engagement and satisfaction.

•
Payors - We partner with payors to deliver access to high-quality outpatient mental healthcare to their members at scale. Through our extensive scale, we offer payors a pathway to reduce overall cost of care in the broader healthcare system while supporting improved physical and mental health outcomes.

•
Primary care and specialist physicians - We collaborate with primary care and specialist physicians to enhance patient care. Primary care is an important setting for the treatment of mental health conditions—primary care physicians are often the sole contact of patients with a mental illness and, in many instances where patients have a chronic condition, specialist physicians step into the role of primary physicians. We partner with primary care physicians and specialist physician groups across the country to provide a mental healthcare network for referrals and, in certain instances, through virtual and physical co-location to improve the diagnosis and treatment of their patients.

Regulatory Trends

On July 4, 2025, the OBBBA was enacted in the U.S. The OBBBA contains a variety of provisions that could impact the healthcare industry with changes to Medicaid programs, including but not limited to, Medicaid renewal and eligibility rules. Additional federal and state guidance is expected to be issued in order to implement these OBBBA provisions, most of which have

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effective dates in 2027 and 2028. While we serve Medicaid patients, the OBBBA is not expected to have a material impact on our business and results of operations as a result of the changes to the Medicaid programs.

Key Factors Affecting Our Results

Expanding Center Capacity and Visits Within Existing Centers

We have built a powerful organic growth engine that enables us to drive growth within our existing footprint.

Our Clinicians

As of December 31, 2025, we employed 8,040 psychiatrists, APNs, psychologists and therapists through our subsidiaries and supported practices. We generate revenue on a per visit basis (total revenue per visit ("TRPV")) as clinical services are rendered by our clinicians. We generate lower revenue and experience lower clinician productivity in periods that have fewer business days than other periods. We measure productivity by the number of visits that are performed by a clinician, which is driven by the time clinicians make available to see patients and our ability to fill clinicians' schedules by attracting new patients, scheduling patients, and converting scheduled appointments to completed visits. Clinician productivity impacts our ability to generate revenue and also impacts clinician compensation, as clinician compensation is primarily driven by the number of visits provided by each clinician. Recruiting new clinicians and retaining existing clinicians enables us to see more patients by expanding our patient visit capacity.

We believe our dedicated employment model offers a superior value proposition compared to independent practice. Our network relationships provide clinicians with ready access to patients. We also enable clinicians to manage their own patient volumes. Our platform promotes a clinically-driven professional culture and streamlines patient access and care delivery, while optimizing practice administration processes through technology. We believe we are an employer of choice in mental health, allowing us to employ highly qualified clinicians.

We believe we have significant opportunity to grow our employed clinician base from our current base of 8,040 clinicians employed through our subsidiaries and supported practices, as of December 31, 2025. We have developed a rigorous and exclusive in-house national clinician recruiting model that works closely with our regional clinical teams to select the best candidates and expand capacity in a timely manner. As we grow our clinician base, we can grow our business, expand access for our patients and our payors and invest in our platform to further reinforce our differentiated offering to clinicians. We have available physical capacity to add clinicians to our existing centers, as well as an opportunity to add new clinicians with the targeted roll-out of new centers. Our virtual care offering also allows clinicians to see more patients without investments in incremental physical space, expanding our patient visit capacity beyond in-person only levels.

Our Patients

We believe our ability to attract and retain patients to drive growth in our visits and meet the availability of our clinician base will enable us to grow our revenue. We believe we have a significant opportunity to increase the number of patients we serve in our existing markets. In 2025, our clinicians treated more than 1.0 million unique patients through approximately 9.0 million visits. We believe our ability to deliver more accessible, flexible, affordable and effective mental healthcare is a key driver of our patient growth. We believe we provide a superior and differentiated mental healthcare experience that integrates virtual and in-person care to deliver care in a convenient way for our patients, meeting our patients where they are. Our in-network payor relationships allow our patients to access affordable care without significant out-of-pocket cost or delays in receiving treatment. We treat mental health conditions across the outpatient spectrum through a clinical approach that focuses on improved patient outcomes. We support our patients throughout their care continuum with purpose-built technological capabilities, including online assessments, digital provider communication, and seamless internal referral and follow-up capabilities.

We utilize multiple strategies to add new patients to our platform, including our primary care and specialist physician relationships, internal referrals from our clinicians, our payor relationships and our dedicated marketing efforts. We have established a large network of national, regional and local payors that enables their members to be referred to us as patients. Payors refer patients to our platform to drive improvement in health outcomes for their members, reduction in total medical costs and increased member satisfaction and retention. Within our markets, we partner with primary care practice groups, specialists, health systems and academic institutions to refer patients to our centers and clinicians. Our local referral marketing teams build and maintain relationships with our referring partner networks to create awareness of our platform and services, including the opening of new centers and the introduction of newly hired clinicians with appointment availability. We also use online marketing to develop our national brand to increase brand awareness and promote additional channels of patient recruitment.

Our Primary Care and Specialist Physician Referral Relationships

We have built a powerful patient referral network through partnerships with primary care physicians and specialist physician groups across the country. We deliver value to our provider partners by offering more efficient referral pathways, delivering improved outcomes for our shared patients, and enabling more integrated care and lower total healthcare costs. As we continue to scale nationally, we plan to partner with additional hospital systems, large primary care groups and other specialist groups to help streamline their mental health network needs and drive continued patient growth across our platform. Our vision

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