New solutions bring together the world’s largest published autism services data set, clinical expertise, and modern data science to power evidence-based change
RethinkFirst, a behavioral health technology company offering software and solutions for autism services, has launched RethinkFutures. The new division delivers clinical data and analytics for payors and health plans to optimize autism care, including solutions for individual care planning, caregiver support, health equity, and provider network management. Led by seasoned healthcare industry experts and clinicians, the division’s solutions help payors accelerate access, improve outcomes and enable value-based care.
“Historically, lack of data in autism care has left health plans and payors in the dark, resulting in ineffective or inefficient approaches to care with unpredictable patient outcomes and treatment costs,” said Daniel Etra, RethinkFirst CEO. “We are thrilled to launch RethinkFutures to focus exclusively on supporting payors as they transform how autism care is accessed and delivered. Our leadership team will be pivotal in helping us bring to market a growing portfolio of evidence-based solutions that improve outcomes and shine unprecedented light on every element of the system.”
Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) is one of the most widely used therapies for individuals with autism, however, there is currently no standard protocol for prescribing treatment—meaning that individuals might be over- or under-prescribed therapy hours. Under the current fee-for-service (FFS) reimbursement system, research suggests that clinicians are incentivized to request more service hours than the patient may need and maintain those hours despite potentially viable discharge plans.
Due to considerations such as social determinants of health (SDOH) and co-morbidities, one study found that 23% of children with autism never initiate treatment, and of those that do 31% discontinue treatment within one year. Only 15% receive 80% or more of the recommended therapy hours. ABA is not one-size-fits-all; it is a highly individualized therapy. Without appropriate intervention, patients may be at risk of not achieving communication, relationship or social goals.
To improve autism care outcomes, RethinkFutures has developed a patent pending artificial intelligence powered platform that enables practical answers to big challenges. The platform leverages two key elements: The world’s largest published autism services data set with more than 250 million clinical data points of ABA session delivery, patient demographics, and outcomes; and its ABA Clinical Decision Support Platform, which pairs that data with clinical expertise, a patient’s unique profile and modern data science to recommend the optimal dosage of ABA therapy for each individual. The results:
- Evidence-based, individualized dosage recommendations in 1-hour increments that augment clinical decision-making, improve interrater reliability and patient outcomes. The RethinkFutures model accounts for 99% of the variance in predicting mastered goals, which is 48% higher than the closest published model
- Monitoring of co-morbidities and coordination of care to flag case or medication management concerns
- Standardized data collection to improve care management workflows and ease provider communications
- Data to help address social determinants of health and health equity
- Measurement and analysis at all levels—from individual outcomes to provider network performance
RethinkFutures also offers payors access to the RethinkFirst parent success program, which provides digital support tools for caregivers at every stage—from pre-diagnosis through treatment and after. These tools empower success at home while reducing the medical and behavioral health impacts of caregiving itself, and can be fully integrated into a payor’s existing member support platforms.
Rethink Welcomes Healthcare Industry Visionaries To Advance RethinkFutures Mission
To drive growth of RethinkFutures and fulfill its mission to enable value-based care for autism services, Rethink has hired several experts including:
- Kim Hanson has been named the leader for the new division. She oversees all areas of the business including strategy, product development, data science, growth, marketing, customer success and operations. In her role, she challenges the status quo and drives innovative, holistic efforts to advance autism services to improve care and outcomes. Prior to joining the RethinkFirst executive team, Kim spent over 18 years in leadership roles across UnitedHealth Group – including leadership roles at Optum, most recently serving as SVP of Population Health at Optum Health.
- Dr. David Cox, Ph.D., M.S.B., BCBA-D, has joined the organization to lead data science. Dr. Cox will drive the development of Rethink’s data transformation vision. Dr. Cox is responsible for architecting and building the AI engine that powers predictions regarding patient progress and dosage recommendations. Dr. Cox will be working with RethinkFutures’ clinical leader, Dana D’Ambrosio, MS, BCBA, LBA, who is responsible for clinical integrity, clinical development and partnerships to ensure best practices, high quality, coordinated care and streamlined review processes are achieved.
- Josh Peters has joined the organization, leading business development and client success. Peters will partner closely with industry healthcare veteran Mindy Goldsmith, who is leading strategy, product innovation and development. Together, they are building market-leading solutions that solve payor needs, leverage RethinkFutures’ core competencies of technology, data science and clinical expertise to deliver unprecedented value to health plans and managed care organizations.
For more information visit our RethinkFutures and RethinkFirst websites.