This article is sponsored by SpectrumAi. This article is based on a Behavioral Health Business panel discussion with Ling Shao, CEO at SpectrumAi, Justin Funches, President at LEARN Behavioral Health, and Frank Angotti, Sr. Medical Director Behavioral Health Services at Aetna. The discussion took place in March 2023 during BHB’s Value event in Washington, D.C.
When it comes to high quality applied behavior analysis (ABA) there are many key players involved including payers, providers, and technology platforms. And they all share a common goal: to provide the best outcomes for patients. Yet historically, these entities have not all worked together.
“The thing that we grapple with is how we create objective data that enable a payer and providers to actually measure who is delivering the best outcomes,” says Ling Shao, CEO at SpectrumAi, a digital health company that offers solutions such as applied behavior analysis and data insights for the treatment of children with autism.
“In the past, data has been very subjective clinician notes and then it’s on a case-by-case basis,” Shao says. “We’re excited at SpectrumAi that we’re able to bring that objective data to both parties and have like-minded people around the room to facilitate these discussions because we actually don’t have an established baseline yet.”
Facing Issues Head On
As these organizations are delivering care at a much larger scale than they were 10 years ago, they face new challenges. First, they are not equipped with the tools needed to provide high-quality care across the board. Another issue they are facing is finding high-quality providers and technicians to meet the unprecedented demand for services.
“One of the things I think that’s a little bit different about the way our services are delivered is that we’re using technicians as our frontline staff,” says Justin Funches, President at LEARN Behavioral Health. “When I think about this challenge that we’re grappling with every single day, it’s figuring out how we deliver quality services at scale.”
Leveraging technology can support both workers and quality services, and can be used to solve multiple problems.
What is quality ABA?
Because ABA is becoming more of a covered benefit across Medicaid plans, organizations are asking: What should be the standard of care?
Creative access is driving much of what payers want and while demand is there, it is a matter of finding the bridge between accessibility and feasibility. The issue often isn’t demand, it is getting the services into the communities.
SpectrumAi helps measure quality and outcomes, with value being a key component to help answer the question: What are the families’ quality of life?
“We’re really trying to work with our families to figure out what an outcome is for them and driving towards that,” says Funches. “I always go back to our mission to find success for every child in our care, and that success can be different, but if quality of life is improving, we’re making progress.”
LEARN Behavioral Health, which uses a contemporary applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy tailored to the unique needs of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is creating value by focusing on communication and maladaptive behaviors, which allows them to see progress each day.
Quality of life is measured as meeting the right level of care for the right amount of time, and making sure that members and their families are getting the services they need.
Workforce Challenges
While issues in the workforce become a constant struggle for most organizations, wage inflation plays another factor. Simply put, if you care organizations want to attract and retain high-quality people who deliver good care, they will need a living wage.
“A lot of what we’re doing with SpectrumAi is in terms of thinking about asynchronous supervision and data so that we can support our staff in the field better and hopefully retain them and make it a job that they’re excited to come back to, because right now it’s really hard,” says Funches.
“We’re starting to measure our outcomes in that way so we can tell those data stories and look back and say, ‘This population is not being impacted as much as we want it to be, and so what can we do differently around that?’” he says. “And we’re being very transparent around that as well.”
SpectrumAi supports providers of ABA services with a first of its kind consumer-grade clinical documentation solution (Electronic Health Record) branded Twyll. To learn more, visit: https://www.spectrumai.com/.
To get in touch with the SpectrumAi team, please contact [email protected].
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