Seven years ago, I Am Boundless generated about $25 million and served about 800 people a year. The organization currently serves more than 6,000 employees and brings in approximately $170 million.
how?
The growth strategy had two components. One, a nonprofit based in Worthington, Ohio, added and expanded its services organically. Meanwhile, we have acquired or merged with similar organizations. This makes I Am Boundless the largest private provider of disability services in the state.
It also made the organization one of the most diverse health and social services organizations. We aim to provide comprehensive care services that address nearly all the needs of people with severe behavioral health conditions and intellectual/developmental disabilities and their families.
We offer primary care, dental, psychiatry, speech and occupational therapy, and applied behavior analysis (ABA). In addition to that, I Am Boundless provides several types of housing, community, and integration services to people with IDD.
I Am Boundless aims to eliminate duplication and maximize limited resources in the nonprofit health and social services sector by acquiring similar organizations.
“When we look for organizations that are not similar to us, we aim to offer everything. [I Am Boundless] Jennifer Lear, chief strategy officer at I Am Boundless, told Autism Business News:
For example, I Am Boundless announced that it will merge with Independence, Ohio-based Koinonia in September 2023. Today, the combined organization employs 3,000 people and operates from seven locations. The merger adds to I Am Boundless’ residential and day care offerings.
Rhia’s responsibilities are extensive and similar to many of her colleagues in the commercial behavioral health industry. She oversees strategy, innovation, advocacy, partnerships, and M&A efforts within I Am Boundless. During her time with the organization, she has held several roles. Most recently, that included Vice President of Programs. She was appointed chief strategy officer in January.
She will participate in a panel discussion titled “Enabling Whole-Person Autism Care Strategies” at Behavioral Health Business’s 1st Annual Autism and Addiction Treatment Forum on July 18 in Chicago It’s a schedule.
The following Q&A, based on ABN’s interview with Leah, has been edited for clarity, length and style.
ABN: What are I Am Boundless’ goals for 2024?
rear: 2024 will be a very interesting year for us. This year, we decided to make a major investment in a technology platform that enables efficient and scalable processes and systems.
We’re spending a lot of time this year implementing new electronic health records, a new financial platform, a new charity management platform, a new contracting platform, a new telephony platform, and more. This spans the entire organization and focuses on making significant investments to position ourselves for efficiency and scalability in the future.
One of the challenges for highly diverse health and social services organizations is implementing EHR systems that meet the many and often disparate needs of those organizations. Did I Am Boundless find one EHR that helps you achieve your goals?
For years, we’ve joked that it feels like we’re collecting things. [EHRs] Like a trophy. Up to seven EHRs were retrieved. You cannot migrate to one system. My personal opinion is that there is no single system that does what Boundless does well. The approach we have taken is to integrate where we can, but look for best-in-class systems, giving practitioners and clinicians the opportunity to do what they do best effectively and efficiently, while reducing their burden.
We’ve built a very robust data warehouse and architecture that takes data from all of our different systems and puts it into our analytics platform. This allows you to see and analyze the whole person by ingesting different systems and different feeds.
It sounds like you’ve been thinking about the data part of operations for a while. What is most important in acquiring and collecting data? Where do you see it going in the future?
We were able to be very clear and specific about the costs and contracted fees for providing care. It definitely helps with conversations with payers.
The other interesting thing that I’m really excited about is being able to take information from, for example, IDD systems, state health information exchanges, states’ own primary care data, and look at the impact that care has on people. We believe that young people who enroll in transitional youth programs and are committed to receiving these services are less likely to have hospitalizations and emergency department visits during the same time period prior to entering and enrolling in the program. I noticed that it is decreasing. That was not one of the stated goals of the program. However, having this robust data set allows us to confirm this correlation and provide insight to ask questions about why this program and this initiative is producing other health outcomes. Masu.
As we look to the future, I personally believe that large-scale language models and AI will give us insights into questions we never even thought to ask, show us correlations, and influence how we behave. We are very excited about the possibility of showing suggestions based on these large datasets.Can we provide the best care and what actually makes a difference?
What were the conversations with payers about the model that I Am Boundless is presenting to the market?
The response from all types of payers, including Medicaid managed care plans, has been very positive. I think we’re probably a little bit different than the typical nonprofit provider. There is also a lot of interest and excitement in being able to participate in alternative payment models and even exploring shared savings opportunities.
We currently operate a variety of alternative payment models and performance-based payments with numerous payers. As we head into 2025, we’re looking at some things about thinking holistically about the total cost of caring for the whole person.
What about employee engagement?
We were very fortunate that Congress listened in 2023 and made some pretty historic interest rate investments, particularly as they related to addressing workforce challenges and wages. We are seeing the impact of these investments. I can’t say we are 100% his staff, but there is always a need to focus on recruitment and retention.
But let’s take a step back and look at the big picture and consider how demographic changes are playing a role in workforce challenges.The U.S. workforce is likely to experience severe labor shortages in all sectors.
There is an interesting dynamic when it comes to interpersonal services. As the workforce shrinks, so does the demand for our services, including caring for aging populations, people with autism and people with mental health conditions. or SUD condition – This resource is growing exponentially while shrinking.
I believe, and we believe too, in the importance of high salaries, a focus on retention and a good culture. Whether we, as an industry, are talking about the role of technology in service delivery, or whether we are talking about the natural family and natural supports working differently than they are today, in terms of alternative ways of thinking. You need to think about the future. past.
What other big issues are getting attention?
We are actually in the very early stages of preparing for our next strategic plan. We’ll share some of the ideas we’re focusing on. We have already touched on the role of technology.
We also focus on the need for cash reserves to create flexibility. We have seen a lot of changes over the past 20 years. We believe that being flexible and resilient as an organization is critical. And the reality is that you really need cash reserves in the long run.
Also consider scale. We feel we need both variety and literal quantity. When you think about alternative payment models, you think about population health. We need a large enough population to manage the risk.
Another thing we think about a lot is what the role of organizations like ours will be in the future if we see a potential reduction in the number of people doing this work. Where does Boundless make the biggest difference? We believe that some solutions, whether it’s about natural families or technology, are part of the solution for less complex people. I believe that it is necessary to be a member of the Department. We are also thinking about models of care that meet the needs of the most acute and most complex cases.
