This article is sponsored by Catalight. In this Voices interview, Behavioral Health Business sits down with Trent Iden to talk about his transition into the role of chief growth officer for Catalight, where he is responsible for revenue, network building, business development and fostering relationships with new funding partners. He outlines some of the key challenges facing providers in 2024 and beyond, and he explains how Catalight is helping to address them. He also discusses the steps Catalight is taking to facilitate the evolution of behavioral health as a whole, providing an outlook on the future of the industry and where Catalight fits into that vision.
Behavioral Health Business: What life and career experiences do you most draw from in your role today?
Trent Iden: I’ve been with the organization since 2014 and, in that time, we’ve significantly developed our model to create broader access throughout Northern California and Hawaii while transitioning to more of a value-based care model. There were numerous learnings about what our families needed, what is most important to them, and how we can be a better partner to the health insurance payers we work with.
Drawing from that experience, I feel that today, compared to 2014, I have a much deeper understanding of what value looks like to those different stakeholders. Additionally, I bring nearly a decade of experience in management consulting, focusing on strategic planning and driving operational efficiency and growth. I rely heavily on my consulting skills and the analytical aspects of that role on a daily basis.
Another perspective I draw from is being a parent of three, which helps me stay grounded in the constraints, challenges and competing priorities that families face every day. This understanding helps us focus on delivering value with every hour of service we provide, focusing on the right things, and promoting wellbeing. Recognizing the family perspective is an important part of our thought process.
As one of the largest non-profit behavioral health networks in the United States and the new leader of growth, what is on the horizon for Catalight?
I think we need to do more. We’ve done a great job in closing the access gap within Hawaii and Northern California and the markets we’ve served but, as we look outside those markets and at the possibility of expanding, we see access gaps that we believe Catalight can help fill. We want to be part of the solution. We need to think about how we can reach more people.
For example, it’s going to take expanding the use of tools, technologies and supports on a larger scale. As an organization, we believe we need to move beyond the traditional focus on 40 hours of ABA and outdated research, and instead drive innovation with like wearable technology to support families in different ways and different treatment options designed to meet families where they are. .
Another critical step is building more capacity. This could be through expanding the services provided by our Easterseals partners within our family of companies, collaborating with other great providers to enhance our network, or focusing on increasing clinical capacity, which is a major emphasis for us this year. For example, we’ve recently launched a postdoctoral program to grow this clinical capacity and have been engaging in extensive continuing education and collaborations with other institutions to rethink how we can build our workforce differently.
We’re currently serving about 17,000 families daily, but the need is far greater. We are committed to doing more.
What challenges do you anticipate in your new position, the organization, and the industry as a whole in 2024 and beyond?
I think one of the biggest challenges we face as an industry is how we approach families with high-level needs differently. In the ’80s, the diagnosis rate for autism was about 1 in 2,500, and it was a very homogeneous population. Fast forward to today, nationwide it’s closer to 1 in 36. From my perspective, one of the most significant challenges is the shortages that exist on the diagnostic side.
Another significant change over this period is that the population we’re serving has become far more heterogeneous. One of the foundational changes that needs to happen, and something we’ve adopted within Catalight, is recognizing that one size doesn’t fit all for this population. We need to ensure that we have customized solutions that are really focused on driving wellbeing for the families we serve.
How do we focus on what matters most to those families? How are we more efficient with our time? How do we scale the clinical workforce that we have so we can make a greater impact? We’re never going to keep up or catch up with the demand if we think every family we serve needs 40 hours of ABA without being thoughtful or flexible in our approach to serving this population differently.
With the increased prevalence of autism and other intellectual and developmental disabilities, how will Catalight meet the growing demand for care?
We need to focus on a portfolio of solutions that is highly customized to a family’s needs and really emphasize wellbeing. The solutions we’re introducing are more scalable, more customized, and enable us to achieve outcomes faster. That’s one approach that will help us address the demand gap.
The second part I’m really proud of, and something Catalight and other organizations are also focusing on, is how we build the clinician workforce for the future. It’s important to continue building this capacity and to help people understand what a career path in this field looks like, and how we can support that.
What is Catalight’s plan to provide financially sustainable services without losing quality in the face of today’s financial constraints?
This is something I discuss with health insurance payers on a very regular basis. There is a tension due to rising costs within this service line, along with capacity constraints — it’s a very complex equation. At Catalight, we have been operating in a value-based environment for a number of years now, which has been beneficial for the work we do and our partnerships with providers in our network.
This approach requires us to be thoughtful about how we drive wellbeing and what a treatment plan needs to look like to meet those goals most effectively. We leverage the data and information from thousands of cases to learn how we can achieve these goals faster. It’s about combining all these elements to find the right balance of reaching outcomes as quickly as possible while being mindful of costs and ensuring every hour of care delivered is impactful.
One example that Doreen Samelson, our chief clinical officer, shared with me, which I’ve found particularly insightful, involves rethinking traditional treatment plans – concentrating on what truly matters and forgoing what doesn’t. If a child is having trouble tying their shoes, the easy, less stressful solution for all is to use shoes with Velcro. If tying shoes doesn’t meaningfully enhance wellbeing for that individual or family, why spend time on it? It raises a critical question: Why focus on intensive efforts that don’t significantly contribute to a family’s wellbeing? This is a powerful consideration that influences how I think about our work and approach it differently every day.
What needs to change in today’s system, and how is Catalight helping the industry evolve?
I’d go back to the concept of choice. The idea that one size fits all is outdated. We need to leverage more recent research and the learnings from all the work being done in the industry. We must continue to challenge ourselves on how we’re going to meet the very heterogeneous needs of our population, how we’re going to address those demands differently, and how we’re going to meet families where they are. Until we think about this model differently, I believe it will continue to be a challenge.
Finish this sentence: “In the behavioral health industry: 2024 is being defined by…”
…continuing to take steps to transition to value-based care within behavioral health.
We’ve been operating in a value-based environment for years, and I think it’s significantly strengthened the services we provide to our population. It shifts focus, aligns incentives, and has been a very constructive net benefit overall.
However, looking more broadly at the space, there continues to be a lot of discussion about how value needs to play a bigger role within behavioral health. Yet, for various reasons, no one seems to be implementing these changes. I’m still trying to understand what some of the key challenges that payers face actually are. What I’d like to see in 2024 is a move beyond just talking about these issues. We need to start drawing a line in the sand, defining how we will measure success in a value-based environment, identifying the outcomes we’re aiming for, and establishing what strong value-based care really looks like. Starting down this path will serve us all better if we begin to move the needle.
Editor’s note: This article has been edited for length and clarity.
CTA: Catalight is one of the largest behavioral health networks in the nation with more than 14,000 practitioners serving 17,000 clients and families each day. The company is reshaping the future of autism and intellectual developmental disability care. Learn more by visiting www.catalight.org.
The Voices Series is a sponsored content program featuring leading executives discussing trends, topics and more shaping their industry in a question-and-answer format. For more information on Voices, please contact [email protected].
