📬ABA Mission Viewpoint Monthly Update – October 2025

The Mission of ABA Mission

👉To drive more—and better—access to ABA care through the smarter use of technology and data.

Welcome to the October 2025 Monthly Update

This month’s theme is Process Design before Technology Platform Decision.

ABA therapy is a uniquely process-intensive field. Scheduling, authorizations, documentation, and billing each touch multiple roles, systems, and data points. The strongest organizations are realizing that how these pieces fit together matters just as much as the tools they use.

IMO, the right sequence looks like this:

1) Table stakes — the essential functions every ABA provider must execute reliably (session notes, claims accuracy, compliance, secure data flow).

2) Best practices — the proven methods that make those table-stake processes efficient and repeatable.

3) Differentiators — the elements that express what makes your organization distinct: your clinical model, your family experience, your workforce culture, your growth strategy.

4) Process design — the deliberate alignment of table stakes, best practices, and differentiators into workflows that define how your business operates.

5) Platform selection — the final step, choosing technology that supports—not dictates—those processes.

Providers who follow this sequence find that technology decisions become clearer and easier. The goal isn’t to make platforms do everything; it’s to design processes that let technology amplify what already works.

Below are links to this month’s posts—each exploring how thoughtful process design drives platform alignment and operational strength.

After Intake: Should CRM Still Play a Role in ABA?

Most ABA organizations forget about CRM after intake and miss opportunities for strong engagement afterwards.

This post shows how CRM can extend its value throughout the client journey: managing reschedules, gathering feedback, and facilitating family engagement through secure communication.

Takeaway: Engagement is a differentiator, and well-designed processes turn CRM into a lasting relationship system—not just a marketing and intake tool. Hint: CRM support for shared video (both ways) will become a game-changer.

The Vanishing Therapist

The most overlooked drop-off in ABA happens after the offer is accepted and before the first session is delivered. In that gap—where no single system tracks readiness, engagement, or emotional connection—many new hires quietly disappear.

This piece examines how fragmented workflows across ATS, HR, and Practice Management systems leave the “pre-service” phase unmanaged, and how structured milestones, cohort onboarding, and empathetic automation can close the gap.

Takeaway: Retention starts before day one. Providers who design and automate the transition from offer to first session—across platforms and people—turn attrition risk into culture-building opportunity.

How to Pick an HR Platform That Fits ABA

HR in ABA isn’t just payroll and onboarding—it’s about credentialing, performance management, and staff retention - and keeping high-turnover teams connected to operations.

This article breaks down three tiers of HR systems: horizontal tools for startups and small clinics, extensible HR + Ops platforms for mid-sized groups needing automation, and ABA-focused systems for large, multi-state providers.

Takeaway: Select an HR platform that matches your organization’s scale, complexity, and growth plan—so your workforce systems evolve in step with your operations.

Manage Your Vendors—or Be Managed by Them

Even if platform selection follows process design, you can’t set it and forget it.

This post explores a dynamic vendor landscape. And, without active oversight, you risk being managed by your software instead of the other way around.

Takeaway: Treat vendor management as an ongoing discipline—stay engaged, track issues, and protect alignment as your operations evolve.

Operator Spotlight: How InBloom turned Scheduling into a Culture Win

This month’s Operator Spotlight features InBloom Autism Services, a provider that began its platform journey by mapping internal processes first.

By analyzing how scheduling, supervision, and reporting actually worked, leadership rebuilt workflows that later shaped implementation—turning technology adoption from a reaction into a strategic differentiator.

A key factor in their success: Jessica Berger, previously a clinician with strong operational instincts. She translated daily realities into a scalable system design that leveraged TheraDriver scheduling capabilities.

Takeaway: When clinicians understand operations, process design becomes sharper—and technology delivers real leverage.

DRBI: A Potential Turning Point for Autism Care

Developmental Relationship-Based Interventions (DRBI) isn’t guaranteed to become the next dominant autism therapy model. But if it does, the impact will be profound.

A real shift toward DRBI would require a complete rethinking of process flows and platform architectures—from supervision and session structures to parent engagement, data capture, and outcome reporting.

Takeaway: At present, Positive Development is the only major organization building the infrastructure to operationalize DRBI at scale, highlighting both the promise and the readiness gap across the field.

The Best De Novo Decisions Start with Meaningful Data

Many ABA providers still open new clinics on instinct—following demand signals or available staff—but gut feel doesn’t scale.

This piece explores how critical de novo data already exists across workforce, payor, and referral systems, yet remains fragmented and hard to use.

Takeaway: The challenge isn’t finding data—it’s connecting it. Solving that integration gap will require collaboration between providers and platforms, a topic I’ll unpack in future posts.

ABA Platform Highlights

• CentralReach → launched ClaimAcceleratorAI, an AI-powered claims recovery tool improving cash flow and efficiency.
• Passage Health → expanded mobile scheduling, billing, and introduced an Authorization Utilization Report for real-time visibility into hours and authorizations.
• Artemis ABA Inc. → became the first NADR-compatible platform, easing participation in Jade Health's National Autism Data Registry.
• AlohaABA→ expanding beyond ABA into OT, PT, and speech therapy.
• Brellium → released an E/M Coding Module for encounter-level compliance visibility.
• Hipp Health → raised $6.2 M to extend its behavioral health platform, starting with ABA.
• ABA Toolbox → secured AWS-led funding and joined NVIDIA’s startup program, advancing its AI-enabled collaborative-care model.

ABA Provider Highlights

• Growth among the Top 20 slowed to ~1.0% MoM, though mid-sized SOAR Autism Center and Yellow Bus ABA continue to outpace peers.
• ABA Centers of America entered the Top 20, replacing Acorn Health.
• Westside Children’s Therapy received investment from Brentwood Capital Advisors, one of the few notable provider deals this year.

ABA Events and Conferences

• CR Unite (Chicago, Oct 20–22) → I’ll be attending alongside some of my clients. Of particular interest—for them and for me—is not just CR’s investment in AI-driven products, but how it’s enabling providers to integrate and manage their EHR data with other platforms and datasets to create truly actionable intelligence.
• Autism Investor Summit East (Arlington, VA, Nov 23) → I’ll also be attending, continuing conversations with investors and operators shaping the future of autism services. If you’re attending either event, I’m happy to connect—just reach out and we can set up a time to meet.

Closing Thoughts

The past month reinforced a clear pattern: platforms keep evolving, but true leverage comes from how providers design their processes, define their differentiators, and manage their technology relationships. Stack choices matter—but process discipline is what turns those tools into scale.

Until next time.

— Scott

P.S. Know someone leading ops, tech, or investment in ABA? Forward this to them—or invite them to join the hundreds of industry leaders already following missionviewpoint.com

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ABA Mission

We offer consulting services to ABA Private Equity Investors, Providers and Tech Platforms looking to scale.

Reach me at scottd@abamission.com to learn more.