The Recovery Executive Podcast

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?

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...

Should you buy or lease? What's the advantage of hiring an attorney, vs an architect for zoning, vs a broker? Did you know you can get free rent or money for renovations built into lease agreements and renewals? This episode with Colin Carr, CEO of CARR Healthcare Realty, has many practical tips for sourcing locations as you start or expand your program.

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....

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...

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...

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...

There are multiple sources of capital to fuel growth for providers or to simply de-risk portions of the business. A sale-leaseback is one such vehicle that operates as an alternative to traditional bank debt or private equity. Patrick Haynes, Managing Principal at Wellness Realty, walks us through the pros and cons of the various types of financing and how they can work to provide much-needed capi...

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.

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 Medi...

Rural areas hard hit by addiction are, unfortunately, often the least likely places in which to find treatment services, especially ones that accept Medicaid. The challenges to creating such programs are many. Nikki King, Manager of Behavioral and Addiction Services for Margaret Mary, overcame these challenges. In this episode, she shares with us her innovative approaches to stakeholder collaborat...

Removing barriers to treatment and improving patient outcomes are two of the core elements of any treatment program's mission. In this episode, I speak with Steve Randazzo, CEO of Aware Recovery. Aware is an innovative, home-based addiction treatment program that works with patients for up to a year providing extended care from a team of professionals. We discuss the logistics, outcomes, and payer...

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...

Looking at 4 key quadrants that are the life's blood of any behavioral health system or treatment program, we explore the do's and don'ts of successful turnarounds around growth strategy. Gary Larcenaire of Project Ity has decades of experience doing both, so I'm excited to share his expertise on this episode.

After 40 years in the addiction treatment space, Doug Tieman is passing the torch as he retires. The industry has changed a lot in 40 years. Doug gives us insight into how Caron has changed and adapted in the field as well as how the field as a whole has changed, including how it will need to continue to change to meet the needs of tomorrow's patients. I thank Doug for his service and commitment t...

Improving clinical outcomes is dependent on feedback-informed care models. There is tremendous opportunity in the treatment space to track, analyze, and improve based on data. In this episode, I speak with Jared Dempsey, Chief Scientist at Trac9, where they have collected data on over 200,000 patients and already identified key data points that help their clients improve outcomes. I found this dis...

How do you take a large problem, like an intake process that takes too long, and reduce time from call to admission by 80% or more in 3 months? Now how do you create a system that facilitates that kind of improvement across every department every month? That's what Sam Klinger, Director of Continuous Improvement for Rogers Behavioral Health, walks us through in this episode. As you can guess, your...

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...

What do you do when people need their pain medication, especially for chronic pain patients? How do you manage both the addiction and the physical health needs? This is an extremely important question more programs should be asking. Ashley Addiction Treatment has created a special Pain Recovery Program. Jessica Vickers joins me on this episode to walk us through that program and how it helps indiv...

There has been growing focus on how outcomes tracking can support both improved patient care as well as improved relationships with the payers. Tom Britton, CEO of Gateway Foundation, has spent a lot of time an energy building outcomes tracking into their programming. In this episode, we hear how he did it and what results they've gotten.

Every leader has had to manage through crisis at some point or another and, with covid, everyone has a fairly recent experience. Kathleen Murphy, SVP at Farnum Center, had to manage through multiple crises during covid. The decision-making process, data needed, and sheer speed of events make crisis management far different from the normal day-to-day. In this episode, with covid as a background, we...

Addiction Campuses has an entirely new leadership team post acquisition and they're completely transforming the company around value and quality. Matt Morgan, the new CEO, is leading that charge, and someone I am personally a big fan of. Coming with extensive experience growing and scaling large healthcare companies, he brings us fantastic insights into how he's applying that expertise at Addictio...

Healthcare laws are complex to say the least. Regular attorneys just don't know enough, which is why I'm having Harry Nelson, Managing Partner of Nelson-Hardiman on this episode. We look at the current legal landscape for addiction treatment, how it's changed, and what are some of the pitfalls like free housing, travel arrangements, and marketing.

Ever had to turnaround an organization that was bleeding money and make it profitable? It's not easy. Manny Nsien, COO of Shadow Mountain Recovery, walks us through his experience doing exactly that. Then he talks further with me about what it takes to succeed in today's treatment landscape. I personally consider Manny to be one of the best COO's in the business, so get ready for some great insigh...

Billing and Revenue Cycle Management is far more than submitting a claim followed by checking to see how much was collected. There are numerous steps in the process and not having them operationalized is a quick way to start losing serious revenue. Ben Dittman, CEO of Avea Solutions, walks us through the systems and processes providers need to know.