CentralReach Announces Head of AI and Launch of cari™-Powered GenAI Mobile Session Summary – First Component of Its Upcoming GenAI RCM Audit Product

Fort Lauderdale, FL (March 26th, 2024) – CentralReach, the leading provider of Autism and IDD software for ABA and multi-disciplinary providers, today announced the appointment of David Stevens to newly created head of GenerativeAI (GenAI) role. In this role, Stevens will lead a team designing, incubating, and piloting all cari-related GenAI efforts for the company. The company currently has over 20 embedded GenAI solutions either in design, pilot, beta or production with a strong pipeline of solutions to follow. To date, CentralReach has two cari-powered solutions in production: its CR ScheduleAI solution designed to automate and streamline the scheduling process for users of its enterprise EMR, and its GenAI session summary, which is part of a new premium offering for users of its CR Essentials small business EMR.   

This news comes a few short months after the company announced its decision to increase investments in GenAI and introduce its GenAI-assistant cari. The new AI assistant powers solutions across CentralReach’s suite of solutions and leverages information from the company’s unparalleled proprietary data set to produce recommendations for review, such as automated session summaries, 24/7 clinical test prep support, fast-tracked assessment recommendations, optimized staffing and schedule recommendations and more.   

“In every discussion we have with our customers and other industry players, navigating capacity constraints and employee turnover as well as increasing workflow complexity is top of mind for providers large and small. The significant investments we continue to make are designed to leverage our unparalleled data set, our talented thought leaders, subject matter experts, and our position as the market leader in autism and IDD care to create fully integrated solutions that use GenAI to simplify workflows, provide unique business insights, and increase margins and cash flow for our users."

"Every conversation to date has reinforced our hypothesis that the ABA industry sees GenAI, deployed responsibly and thoughtfully, as a help and not a threat because it allows them to serve more individuals while realizing improved economics,” said Chris Sullens, CEO of CentralReach.

“By appointing Dave, a proven entrepreneurial leader, to spearhead our initiatives and align our roadmap with high-impact opportunities such as AI-generated session notes, real-time AI-supported claims verification, and AI-supports for RBT supervision, we are delivering tangible benefits unmatched by any competitor or third-party solution. The feedback from users to-date has been amazing and I’m excited to get these into market and begin to pilot the many exciting solutions we have in the pipeline.” 

The new AI-powered session summaries were launched to alpha in November and after extensive testing were opened to a private beta in early January. Within a day of launching the beta invitation, waitlist requests swelled into the hundreds prompting the company to end the waitlist signup period early. The surge demonstrated a strong interest in utilizing AI to streamline workflows and help clinicians craft better session summaries for payors and caregivers, which ultimately leads to increased clean claims rates and reduced expense and rework at the end of the claims process. Based on the early results, this new AI-feature will increase the quality of the narratives while saving clinicians at least 50% of time they spend generating and reviewing them today. The company is rolling out this same functionality within its enterprise EMR for customers using CR Mobile in early Q2 and is starting to accept early beta user requests on an invite-only basis. Sign up for the beta waitlist can be done here.  

CentralReach is also developing “co-pilot” solutions to accelerate workforce competency, particularly focused on enhancing the supervision experience for RBTs, student analysts, and early career analysts. By providing interfaces and reporting on both sides of the supervision relationship, the bots will allow supervisees to get real time support for things such as test prep, accessing instant answers to real time questions, and escalating immediate supervision needs to the BCBA case manager. Meanwhile, supervisors get insights needed to allocate their time efficiently and structure professional development plans around instantly accessible, up-to-the-moment performance data. One case manager who has used the initial solution shared, “I’m continually pulled left and right, with little time to plan my supervision time. With cari, many of my RBTs’ needs are met in the moment while working with their clients, they didn’t have to interrupt my session with another client."

"The reporting I received from cari enabled me to quickly see concepts the RBTs had not mastered as well as places my treatment plan needed revising or clarifying. It is a game changer and allows me to provide my best to each of my technicians." 

The launch of cari-enhanced session summaries for users of CR Mobile marks the initial phase of the company’s plan to offer integrated, real-time RCM and claims audits throughout the claims process. This solution is designed to assist providers in proactively identifying expensive compliance errors in real-time by analyzing payor contracts, fee schedules, and authorization templates. This will allow CR customers to replace the costly, time-consuming manual or third-party solutions they use today at the end of the claims process, reducing expense and more importantly reducing the burden on staff to retroactively fix errors after the event has already occurred. Too often, providers are only able to collect around 60% of their expected revenue due to claims being denied after the fact. Even small improvements in this collection rate can yield significant returns for providers.