60% increases in patient responsibility collections? Patients sending thank you notes after paying their bills? Reduction in AMAs? Creating payment plans based on risk stratification data according to patient background? If you thought collecting deductibles and co-insurance would somehow have negative repercussions on your program, then you need to listen to this episode, where I speak with Chris Wolfington of FinPay on strategies to do all of the above.

The Recovery Executive Podcast

EP 71: Increasing Patient Responsibility Revenue through Risk Stratification & Patient Education

Digital therapeutics are a new form of treatment where a doctor or other health professional prescribes digital content. Just like any other medication, the patient needs a written prescription.

Pear Therapeutics has several FDA-approved digital therapies on the market already, including for addiction treatment. They provide low-cost and surprisingly efficacious care. 

Dr. Yuri Maricich, Chief Medical Officer for Pear, fills us in on this innovative form of treatment, how it fits into current continuums of care, and the results they've seen to date.

Ep 74: Digital Therapeutics Provide Low-cost, Effective Treatment with Yuri Maricich

Business development is a revolving door at many providers and remains one of the greatest areas of opportunity across behavioral health. How does one recruit, retain, and effectively train reps to bring out the best in them? I speak with Jordan Young of Jordan Young and Associates in this episode to learn just that.

EP 75: Improving Business Development - Recruitment, Retention, and Efficacy with Jordan Young

What are the forces that drive valuation? How does an owner know what a reasonable sale price is and how does a buyer calculate how much they should pay?

This is not a simple calculation. It depends on many factors both internal and external to the business. Dexter Braff, President of the Braff Group, walks us through his 15+ years of experience doing M&A in the field of behavioral health.

Some of the terminology we use in this one can be a bit difficult to differentiate, and can be used differently by different people, so a couple of definitions:

Price - the final amount paid for the asset, which could be very different from the asset's intrinsic value.

Speculation: The concept of paying a price above intrinsic value because the buyer believes they can sell it for an even higher price in the near future due to current market dynamics rather than underlying business fundamentals.

Valuation (Intrinsic Value): The amount that the asset is worth based on business fundamentals, not including any frothiness in the market that may be over or undervaluing assets in a particular class or vertical.

EP 77: Valuation: Making the Calculations with Dexter Braff

Success in business is often about making big bets with limited data. However, consistency in execution and leading indicators can often fill in some of those data gaps over time. This approach to business growth and success works particularly well for marketing. 

Jason Perillo, CMO of High Watch Recovery, discusses some of the massive bets they've made recently and how they measure success and ROI over the long-term.

EP 78: Big Bets for Big Results in Marketing with Jason Perillo

PR is often delegated to the marketing team or not done at all at many behavioral health organizations. Ted Bender, CEO of BeWell Network, sees it differently. Across roles and organizations, he has consistently become a go-to source for local media outlets, becoming the face of the company in the community. Now, he is even hosting his own national videocast on YouTube with some famous individuals.

What's his process for gaining media exposure and, as a CEO with countless demands on his time, how does he decide how much time to allocate as well as the return on that investment. Join us for this excellent discussion as we answer those questions on this episode of the Recovery Executive Podcast.

EP 79: Becoming the Face of the Company with Ted Bender

Alumni programming is critical to patient success post-treatment as well as the financial stability of the program. Michael Maassel built Harmony Foundation's alumni program from scratch to the point where Harmony sees 40 or more admissions a month come through alumni referral. 

She has created an extremely engaged alumni community that benefits from a wide array of in-person and digital services. Join us on this episode to learn how she did it and how your program can do the same.

EP 80: More Alumni Engagement, More Attraction to Your Program with Michael Maassel

This is one of my favorite interviews to date. How did a little-known provider start with one facility and grow to nearly 700 beds with a 99% run-rate for the entire year so far? How do they plan to grow to 40 facilities within the next year and a half?

The answer is Matt Boyle, CEO of Landmark Recovery. Matt and his team have created a model by thinking completely outside the existing playbook of addiction treatment. In fact, they saw what others had been doing in the field and made a conscious decision to do away with most of what they saw. 

Matt was incredibly gracious to share his strategies and many actionable tips on what scalable, long-term growth that works looks like.

EP 82: Reinventing the Growth Model with Matt Boyle

We end up exploring two topics in this interview with JD Kalmenson, CEO of Montare Behavioral Health:

1) How can screens help tailor treatment programming?
2) How can therapies such as TMS, Neurofeedback, or Ketamine be used in a continuum of care?

EP 83: Complementary Stepdown Treatments for Behavioral Health with JD Kalmenson

​The MAT space has traditionally done very little in the way of marketing due to how underdeveloped the space is as well as the high demand for services from Medicaid patients. But, like addiction treatment and psych hospitals before them, as more and more providers have entered the space in a maturing market, reliance on being the only provider in town is no longer a viable strategy.

BrightView is far ahead of what were once many of its much larger competitors because they started marketing back in 2019 before any MAT providers were doing so. Colin Jeffries, VP of Marketing, gives us insights into their reasoning and strategy in this episode of the Recovery Executive Podcast.

EP 85: Marketing MAT with Colin Jeffries

50 years of research has confirmed contingency management as one of the most effective treatment modalities out there both as a standalone and in conjunction with 12-step, community reinforcement approaches, and others.

Yet, it's hard to find funding or reimbursement for it and most providers haven't even considered integrating it into their programs.

In this episode, I speak with Eric Gastfriend, CEO of DynamiCare Health, a digital therapeutic platform with contingency management at its core. We talk about the research, the challenges to implementation, and what the academic literature says about doing it right.

EP 86: Integrating Contingency Management into Treatment with Eric Gastfriend

We've seen a tragic record of over 100,000 overdoses in the US last year. The common narrative is that overzealous marketing by pharmaceutical companies and overprescribing of opioids by medical professionals created a new wave of individuals addicted to pills that then turned to heroin when the pill supply dried up.

However, according to SAMHSA's data, rates of addiction in the general population didn't change at all. So, while overdoses have skyrocketed, the percentage of the population struggling with addiction has not, meaning that the data doesn't exactly match the common narrative.

Dr. Singer is a physician and owner of a group surgical practice who has also become a Senior Fellow at The CATO Institute, advising on opioids, drug policy, and other topics. In this interview, he walks us through a lot of the data from SAMHSA, NIH, and other research to help us take another look at what's happening in our country around drug use and overdoses. It's an episode you won't want to miss.

EP 87: A Different Take on Opioids and Overdoses with Dr. Jeffrey Singer

Bringing a company out of bankruptcy is hard. Taking over marketing for an acquisition that's bringing in far less revenue than you thought it was is also very hard. Former CMO of both Foundations and Promises, Kathy Frossard, walks us through lessons learned through two large acquisitions. 

In particular, we discuss the viability of a national brand play in commercial SUD and why no one to date has been able to successfully accomplish it, though many have, and are, trying. We then discuss our thoughts on what to do differently in order to make that happen.

EP 88: Lessons Learned After Large Acquisitions with Kathy Frossard

Specialty tracks are springing up all over these days, the most common being veterans, first responders, and LGBTQ. Some providers have also embarked on specific faith-based tracks, but these programs are not easy to do well. 

In this episode, I speak with Devora Shabtai, VP of Clinical Development for Onward Living. Having built both Christian-specific and Jewish-specific tracks at different providers, she walks us through the logistics and complexities of faith-based programming to help providers do it right.

EP 89: Building Quality Faith-based Programs with Devora Shabtai

Through the integration of digital and peer recovery supports, JourneyPure was able to double improvement of recovery outcomes compared to treatment as usual.

In this interview, Dr. Brian Wind, Chief Clinical Officer of Regard Recovery and JourneyPure, shares how the integration of these supports came about, what results they've seen, and the success they've had in getting reimbursed for those efforts as well.

EP 90: Post-discharge Patient Success Thru Digital And Peer Recovery

The delivery of group therapy hasn't received an update or serious attention since Irvin Yalom's work back in the 50's. Because most therapy delivered in addiction treatment is group therapy and, as a field, we're finally talking about trackable outcomes, it has become clear that improved techniques are needed.

Andrew Bordt, Executive Director for The Institute for the Advancement of Group Therapy, and I walk through the neurobiology of learning and how effective group facilitation can significantly improve outcomes not just in the group, but beyond as patients reintegrate into their daily lives.

EP 92: Better Group Therapy Better Outcomes with Andrew Bordt

Building the backend data infrastructure to track both business metrics and clinical outcomes is costly and time-intensive. Even for a medium-sized organization, this can cost upwards of $500,000 per year, so the last thing anyone wants to do is build it wrong or get off on the wrong foot.

Dr. Nick Hayes, Chief Science Officer at Cumberland Heights, walks us through their best-in-class data science department. He and his team built out what I consider to be the best setup in the field.

Nick shares how they built it, what that setup looks like, the outcomes they've gotten, and how it's helped Cumberland improve as an organization overall and deliver even better outcomes for patients.

EP 94: Building a Sophisticated Data Infrastructure with Dr. Nick Hayes

Payer expectations continue to change every year and so provider RCM benchmarks and best practices need to change as well. We're seeing more payers deny contracts or opt to not renew contracts based on a variety of trends in SUD.

In this episode, I speak with Erin Burke, CEO of Hansei Solutions. With over 1 million processed claims from providers across the country, they have a ton of data to inform strategies for sustainable operations and strong payer relations.

EP 95: RCM Benchmarking & Best Practices with Erin Burke

Through focused training and ongoing feedback, therapists can significantly improve their intervention skills in order to achieve stronger patient outcomes. With the payers focused on outcomes more than ever, the time is now to hone in on ways to strengthen clinical delivery.

Zac Imel, Chief Science Officer of Lyssn and Professor in Psychology. speaks with me on the research regarding therapeutic skills and fidelity in clinical delivery. We talk about specific skills and actions therapists can take that help them become better therapists and help patients obtain better outcomes through the therapy received.

EP 96: Concrete Actions to Help Therapists Improve Their Skills with Zac Imel

Everyone wants to know, "How do we get the best reimbursement rates possible?" Stu Segal, Principal at FlormanTannen, and I discuss this question in depth. Obtaining better reimbursement rates requires far more than asking for them or "hard-nosed negotiation." Instead, it requires planning, patience, outcomes data, and relationships, all integral pieces of successful negotiation with payers.

EP 97: Maximizing Reimbursement Rates with Stu Segal

AI, call flows, tech stack, and intelligent routing, all to improve call center conversions, decrease staff burnout, and reduce patient frustration on admissions calls. We'll talk about all that and more with Karl Fischer, Managing Director of DecisivEdge.

EP 98: Call Center Tech Stack & AI Routing With Karl Fischer

How does a first-time entrepreneur bootstrap a treatment program starting with outpatient and then gradually building a full continuum of care? 

In Arizona, many treatment programs were started, and almost as many failed within short order, Tyler Tisdale, CEO of Pinnacle Peak Recovery, shares his story of success and what it took to get there, how he succeeded where so many others did not. He takes us through the pivots, systems, processes, and strategies that have made Pinnacle Peak one of the leading providers in the Greater Phoenix area.

EP 99: Bootstrapping to Success with Tyler Tisdale

Successful call center operations are integral to the success of any provider. Your marketing and outreach teams can be phenomenal, but if your admissions staff on the phones don't do their job well, patients will go elsewhere. 

Call centers are so much more than merely staff training. The staff have to be good, but you also need to set them up for success with appropriate technology, tracking, software, scheduling, and structure.

In this episode, Michele Santagata, CEO of Santagata Consulting, shares her expertise running call centers big and small for behavioral health.

Recovery Executive Podcast

EP 100: Expert Call Center Admissions with Michele Santagata

Intentionality is different from desire. Many programs want to grow, they strive to grow, but there is not always intentionality as to how they go about that, especially when it comes to community need and program design. 

In this episode, I speak with Jaime Vinck, CEO of Recovery Ways and former CEO of Sierra Tuscon, regarding building a program with intentionality. How should programs look at community need, payer relationships, and program development BEFORE they open up a new program? Jamie shares her extensive experience as well as Recovery Ways' current common sense strategy to growth and scale.

EP 101: Intentionality In Developing Programs And Scaling With Jaime Vinck

Groups Recover Together has developed a very specific care model that doesn't fit into standard fee-for-service arrangements. This required them to think outside the box when negotiating with payers, resulting in the majority of their contracts being value-based care arrangements.

Groups is committed to delivering positive outcomes for its patients and goes at risk with the payers to guarantee those results. They've developed robust outcomes tracking, something notoriously hard to do in the MAT space, enabling them to see what's working, what's not, and where taking risk is appropriate.

Cooper Zelnick, CRO of Groups, walks us through their care model, the data they collect, and how both those things create value for patients and payers.

EP 102: MAT, Data, and Value-based Care with Cooper Zelnick

Stagnant community outreach and business development strategies are still the norm in much of the field of behavioral health, which is why so many providers struggle to build consistently high-performing teams. 

Often, lack of results are ascribed to the outreach reps themselves, but the reality is that there is significant opportunity for providers to step up their hiring, training, and support processes for their teams.

Shelley Plemons, most recently the Senior Vice President of Strategy and Growth for Discovery Behavioral and now a Senior Consultant for Circle Social, discusses the strategies and tactics that define successful outreach teams. We discuss how much of it is really common sense, but this is certainly a topic where the adage "common sense is often not common practice" applies.

EP 104: Common Sense Business Development with Shelley Plemons

High-end private pay programs charge as much as $100,000 a month for patients entering these exclusive facilities. Cultivating referral relationships for patients in the income bracket that can afford such programs require a specialized approach.

Mark O'Connor has worked in outreach for both Caron and The Lighthouse, two programs renowned for the quality of care they provide, that comes at significant cost for their higher end programming.

Mark walks us through his relationships and approach that have helped him regularly place patients into such programming.

EP 105: How to Cultivate Private Pay Referrals with Mark OConnor.mp3

Business Development has hit a wall with reps bringing in a third the number of referrals that they used to. One reason for this is that they move around too much and enough time isn't invested to drive results. In this episode, we talk with Elisa Saunders who has experience at both Acadia and Foundations. She gives insights into why reps stay or go and we also discuss strategies to ensure success.

EP 17:  Biz Dev Reps - Should I Stay or Should I Go Now with Elisa Saunders

Navigating addiction treatment for patients can be very complicated. There are PCPs, therapists, court systems, and pharmacies to manage, just to name a few. Patient Care Coordinators can help patients through the complex array of paperwork and tracking during a time when they need to be focused on recovery. Kat Lehnert-Scott of Ashley Addiction Treatment walks us through the role and benefits to patients.

EP 66: The Role of the Patient Care Coordinator with Kat Lehnert

The business of recovery is changing fast. Many executives are getting left behind. The Recovery Executive Podcast talks to experts in the field on marketing, operations, M&As, billing, and growth to help you build your organization, serve more of those who need help, and stay on top.

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