In the latest Raven Health webinar, Tim Crilly sat down with consultant Ivy Zwicker, who shared her insights on how ABA practice owners can successfully grow their teams while ensuring financial health. With over a decade of experience in the ABA industry, Ivy’s expertise helps businesses navigate the challenges of sustainable growth.
Key Takeaways: Financial Health & Growth Ivy introduced the concept of ‘No Margin, No Mission,’ emphasizing the importance of maintaining financial stability to keep the mission of helping families alive. While passion drives ABA practices, the financial component ensures longevity. Ivy recommended performing a market analysis when expanding into new areas, ensuring that there is not only client demand, but also enough RBTs and BCBAs to support your services.
Understanding Rates & Caseload Management Ivy highlighted the importance of knowing payer rates and managing caseload metrics. Understanding your reimbursement rates—especially for core services like 97153 and 97155 – is critical to sustaining a healthy business. Additionally, Ivy discussed the need for tracking growth carefully to avoid overstaffing, which could lead to financial strain.
Data-Driven Decisions for Growth Ivy stressed the importance of tracking metrics like authorization utilization and average billable hours. She explained how maintaining data dashboards allows ABA owners to make informed decisions about when to hire more staff and how to optimize their existing teams for both financial and operational success.
Balancing Growth and Client Needs It’s essential to balance client growth with workforce management. Ivy advised owners to carefully analyze their client demographics and ensure they are strategically filling gaps in their caseloads, particularly during underutilized hours, such as mornings and early afternoons.
Final Thoughts For ABA practice owners, Ivy’s advice centers around being realistic with your business growth, tracking the right data, and ensuring financial health from day one.
In a recent Raven Health webinar, Tim Crilly hosted John and Jill Jacobson of J2Jacobson Consulting to share essential advice for starting an ABA practice. Drawing from decades of experience, they offered valuable insights for professionals transitioning from employee to practice owner.
Key Considerations Before Starting The Jacobson’s emphasized the importance of evaluating your motivations. Jill warned that starting an ABA practice isn’t a quick escape from frustration, but a significant commitment. Financial preparedness is critical – Jill advised, “Don’t quit your day job,” stressing the importance of having a strong financial plan and consulting experts beyond ABA clinicians.
Strategic Startup Planning John and Jill stressed the importance of defining your service model – home-based, center-based, school-based, or hybrid – and understanding your market. John pointed out that different regions have varying demands for ABA services, so it’s vital to research and plan accordingly.
Financial Management & Growth A key takeaway was the need for a detailed financial budget and hiring plan. Understanding your break-even point and having a growth strategy in place is essential for long-term success. Jill highlighted the need for smart decisions, especially when scaling from home to center-based services.
Systems & Retention Implementing the right systems at the right time is crucial for managing a growing practice. John also emphasized the importance of staff retention, noting high turnover rates among RBTs. Creating a supportive environment where staff feel valued is key to sustaining your practice.
Final Thoughts For those considering starting their ABA practice, the Jacobsons highly encourage seeking expert advice and planning strategically for success. Interested in learning more? Watch the full, free webinar below: Click here to watch the webinar.
As the end of the summer approaches, families are gearing up for the transition back to school. For many children, starting fresh with a new teacher, classroom, and routines is exciting. However, for those with developmental delays, returning to school can be challenging and require special considerations.
Preparing for a Successful Transition
For many children with developmental delays, routines, and predictability are essential for managing daily life. Some strategies to assist in a smooth transition back to school include:
Social Stories and Visual Schedules: Using personal narratives and visual schedules can help prepare your child for new experiences and routines by explaining what to expect clearly and visually.
Gradual Transition: If possible, gradually introduce new end-of-summer routines. For example, introduce your before-school home routine. This may include waking up, brushing teeth, eating breakfast, getting dressed, etc. Practicing new routines will help minimize anxiety and provide time to adjust.
Communication with Teachers: Establish open lines of communication with teachers and related service providers. Sharing insights into your child’s preferences, triggers, and strengths can facilitate a supportive school experience, where understanding is met.
Spend Time At School: A couple of weeks before school starts, visit the campus. Some teachers may be available for a meet-and-greet, where your child can visit their new classroom and meet their teacher. If the school has a playground, allow your child to explore and acclimate to the environment through playtime activities.
Dress Rehearsal: New shoes? New clothes? For individuals with sensory issues, a new wardrobe may take time to adjust to. Break in new shoes and clothing a couple of weeks before school begins to allow your child time to adapt to new and different textures. Depending on how much routine your child needs, it may also be beneficial to use a new lunchbox or backpack several times before the first day of school.
As schools reopen, it’s crucial to recognize how to best support your child. Preparing for this transition will ease anxiety and promote positive school experiences. Let’s make this school year one of learning, understanding, and compassion!
Looking for ways to enrich your child’s cognitive, physical, and emotional growth during these long summer days? One of the most effective ways to do so is through tactile sensory play! Here are some summer-friendly sensory play ideas made easy with things from around your house, thoughtfully curated by an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) Educator.
Sidewalk Chalk Paint
Materials: Muffin tin or cups, paint brushes/sponges/foam brushes, cornstarch, water, liquid food coloring
Instructions: Mix equal parts cornstarch and water and whisk smooth. Divide the mixture into cups or a muffin tin. Use one small drop of food coloring to color the individual containers. Then, use paint brushes, sponges, or foam brushes to paint onto sidewalks.
Instructions: Mix two cups of cornstarch with one cup of water. Add a few drops of blue food coloring when the mixture is partially combined. Add your ocean animals and see how fast they can swim!
DIY Moon Sand (Taste Safe)
Materials: Flour (or rice flour for gluten-free), coconut, canola, or vegetable oil, pan, sand/water toys
Instructions: Mix eight cups of flour with one cup of oil. Combine ingredients until the mixture feels silky and sandy but will hold shape if you squeeze it. Now, go ahead and build a sandcastle!
Ice Cream Sensory Bin (Taste Safe)
Materials: rainbow sprinkles, container, ice cream toys such as an ice cream scoop, spoons, cupcake liners, ice cream cones (real or pretend), and any other ice cream-type tools you have on hand
Instructions: Fill a bin with rainbow sprinkles and ice cream toys. Have fun scooping ice cream!
Incorporating tactile sensory activities into your child’s day nurtures their overall development by engaging their senses. These activities can be done indoors or outdoors. So grab those materials to whip up hours of summer fun!
In the realm of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, efficiency is paramount. The ability to streamline processes, accurately collect data, and provide seamless support can significantly impact the quality of care for individuals receiving therapy. In this blog, we delve into the experience of No Missing Pieces, led by COO Jennifer Arredondo, an ABA therapy organization, as they transitioned to using Raven, an ABA data collection platform, and how it revolutionized their operations.
No Missing Pieces, led by COO Jennifer Arredondo and based in Louisiana, is committed to providing high-quality ABA therapy services to their clients. However, like many organizations, they faced challenges with previous data collection platforms, which hindered their efficiency and productivity.
Recognizing the need for a more efficient solution, No Missing Pieces, under the leadership of COO Jennifer Arredondo, explored various ABA data collection platforms. They ultimately chose Raven due to its user-friendly interface, comprehensive features, and excellent support system.
No Missing Pieces quickly realized the numerous benefits of using Raven. From streamlined data collection to improved billing processes and enhanced preparation for audits, Raven became an indispensable tool in their arsenal.
One of the standout features of Raven is its efficiency and user-friendliness, appreciated by COO Jennifer Arredondo and her team. The intuitive interface and customizable scheduling options have made supervision sessions more productive and streamlined.
The team lauds Raven’s support team, particularly highlighting the responsiveness and dedication of Miguel Garcia. Their prompt assistance and willingness to resolve issues have further solidified their trust in the platform.
Based on their positive experience, No Missing Pieces wholeheartedly recommends Raven to other ABA therapy organizations. Their overall experience with Raven can be summarized in one word: efficiency.
Raven allows me to easily review session details, including notes and data points, which wasn’t possible with previous platforms we used. With Raven, I can see each data point made within a session, making audits much smoother.
Jennifer Arredondo | COO – No Missing pieces
Conclusion
The journey of No Missing Pieces with Raven exemplifies the transformative impact of leveraging technology in ABA therapy. By prioritizing efficiency, user-friendliness, and robust support, Raven has become an invaluable asset in enhancing the quality of care provided by ABA therapy organizations.
As the demand for ABA therapy continues to grow, embracing innovative solutions like Raven can empower organizations to optimize their operations and ultimately make a positive difference in the lives of individuals with autism and related developmental disorders. To embark on a similar journey of transformation, we encourage other ABA service providers to set up a call with Raven Health and unlock the potential for enhanced efficiency and client care.
