Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Leadership, Compliance, and Expanding Access in Eating Disorder Care with Susan Barrett of Monte Nido

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Leadership, Compliance, and Expanding Access in Eating Disorder Care with Susan Barrett of Monte Nido · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business
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  and the Becker Private Equity podcast. This will
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  also be a special combined episode with Becker's
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  HealthCare.
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  This episode today, we're gonna feature a brilliant
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  woman leader, Susan Barrett, who's a general counsel
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  and chief compliance officer of a company called
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  Montanito.
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  And Montanito is in the eating disorder
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  area.
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  She's a brilliant leader. We'll talk a little
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  bit about her career, about what Montanito does,
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  where they're most focused, the trends we're watching,
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  and a lot more.
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  Susan, can you take a moment to introduce
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  yourself and tell us a little bit about
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  Montanito?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. So, yeah, I'm Susan Barrett. I
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  am the general counsel and the chief compliance
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  officer at Montanito.
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  We are a leading provider of eating disorder
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  treatment. So we have services
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  through approximately
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  50 brick and mortar locations
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  as well as virtually across The US. So
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  we're doing every level of care here. It's
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  inpatient,
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  residential,
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  partial hospitalization,
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  intensive outpatient,
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  and more recently outpatient levels of care as
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  well. So
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  it's a comprehensive
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  staff.
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  We have psychiatrists,
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  other allied health care
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  providers like nurse practitioners,
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  therapists,
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  registered dietitians,
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  nurses, recovery coaches,
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  you know, all of them play a part
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  in the recovery journey. So I've been with
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  the company for a little over three years
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  now.
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  It's an excellent place to work,
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  smart, passionate colleagues.
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  And just from a personal standpoint,
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  it's pretty rewarding just given the number of,
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  clients that we've helped recover from eating disorders,
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  which is a
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  pretty deadly,
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  mental health disease.
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  So so fascinating sort of growth story for
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  for the for the company, for Montanito
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  in an area where there's so much prevalence
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  and so much challenge and so important.
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  Talk about as you head into 2026,
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  what are you most focused on and excited
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  about at Montanito?
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  Yeah. I'm excited about the, you know, the
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  continued
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  opportunity
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  to increase the access to care both, you
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  know, brick and mortar and virtually to reach
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  more,
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  patients that are in need of the services.
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  So, you know, last year, we had Andy
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  Blankenmeier. He was appointed our CEO.
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  He's really passionate about the work that we
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  do.
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  Really,
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  two new board members. They've
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  really deep expertise in health care and behavioral
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  health.
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  We had our,
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  you know,
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  twenty twenty five outcomes report, which
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  all of that showed, you know, really strong
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  symptom reduction and client satisfaction.
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  So I expect all of this to continue.
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  It's it's a good time to be a
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  part of the behavioral health space, in my
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  opinion, because there's so many people to reach
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  here. And I think it's exciting,
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  you know, for the company to continue to
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  grow, and and,
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  everyone that I work with is super passionate
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  about what we're doing. And so it's I
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  think we can continue the good services, the
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  good outcomes,
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  and just continue to reach more people virtually
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  in in person.
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  I'd I'd want to talk to you for
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  a moment about leadership because Andy Blankenmeier is
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  a fantastic leader.
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  You yourself are having a fantastic leadership career.
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  I I saw recently you were named as
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  a top counsel,
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  in in a certain
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  group, and and congratulations.
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  Talk a little bit about when you think
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  about leadership, about
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  what resonates with you, what types of skill
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  sets, and what advice might you give to
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  emerging leaders?
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  I I I remember Andy from I think
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  when he was in Ohio before he was
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  with
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  this company
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  and a and a tremendous leader. But but
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  talk about, like, your own leadership thoughts,
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  what you see in Andy, what you see
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  in people generally
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  that you would maybe give advice to on
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  emerging leaders.
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  Yeah. I mean, I think from my perspective,
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  you know, the number one thing is to,
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  you know, work hard and do good work.
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  That's obviously step one. But you have to
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  build
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  relationships and trust with the people that you
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  work with. I mean, particularly
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  in my space, you know, being the chief
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  compliance officer and the general counsel,
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  I want people to feel that they can
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  reach out to me at any time with
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  any question or concern because,
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  you know, I wanna be proactive in in
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  addressing issues. I want people to feel comfortable,
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  and I want them to feel, you know,
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  I'm internalizing
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  their problems and making it my problem and
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  being innovative with them to find a solution.
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  So I think it's either you wanna be
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  responsive. You gotta understand the full picture from
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  people.
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  Don't be afraid to pick up the phone
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  and just find ways to assist. And and
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  people want
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  to have a culture of compliance.
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  Right? They wanna do the right things, and
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  so whatever I can do
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  to assist them.
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  There's no
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  you know, I I am the only,
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  attorney at the company right now, and
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  anyone can reach out to me at any
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  time. You know, it doesn't matter what I'm
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  doing. It's it's all important to me. So
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  I think build that trust with your colleagues
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  because
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  when it comes to a situation
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  where,
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  you know, they are are stuck, you want
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  them to look for look to you as
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  a resource. You can protect the company from
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  risk and liability in those situations.
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  So,
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  it's it's a it's a unique position to
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  be in, but it's a really important role
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  for company to have, you know, a leader,
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  a general counsel, and and or a chief
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  compliance officer that has those relationships with staff
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  members.
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  No. It's it's truly remarkable. And in the
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  eating disorder space,
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  what trends are you watching currently? What what
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  sort of is top of mind in the
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  eating disorders area?
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  Yeah. I mean, I think
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  for for me on the legal side, like,
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  I do a daily review
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  of, you know, the current administration and any
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  impact
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  on the health care sector, whether that's
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  court decisions,
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  like, for instance, you know, ninth circuit just
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  issued the appellate ruling on ECRA. You know?
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  We have the executive orders,
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  how that impacts us, any actions by administrative
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  bodies. You know? I I handle all our
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  employment work, you know, EEOC
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  decisions,
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  any HIPAA related with HHS.
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  So I'm I'm constantly,
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  you know, reviewing and seeing how that's evolving
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  and impacting us. And then if it does,
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  you know, it's it's
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  determining next steps, whether that's training with employees,
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  updating our policies, and and trying to be
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  proactive versus reactive with the current administration and
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  and their impact on health care. I think
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  the other trend for us and, really, I
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  think it's just anyone in health care right
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  now who's in legal.
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  You know, you kinda have to be on
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  top of the latest laws and and regulations
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  related to the use of technology and AI.
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  I mean, it's it's a hot topic right
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  now and, you know, we want to increase
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  efficiency in the patient care experience.
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  So, you know, in order to do that,
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  you know, we have to be able to
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  manage risk and comply with HIPAA and and
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  privacy laws. And, you know, that's definitely a
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  newer topic in the past year or so,
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  that we're you have to kinda be all
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  over because it's it's important for the business.
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  And and I can imagine that every family,
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  every person that has a eating disorder
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  is also looking at Chi ChiPT
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  and online resources and so forth. And and
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  are there challenges in sort of
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  pushing through that and and being able to
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  talk to patients, talk to families
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  about
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  both
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  combining, converging the synergies and what they're seeing
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  online versus what you folks are doing?
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  Are those evolving issues?
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  Those are evolving issues. I mean, the Internet
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  in AI is is a great thing, right,
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  in my opinion. It we can use it
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  to to really enhance the
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  the patient care experience, and I think there's
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  a lot of value to it. There's also
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  some dangers,
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  you know, what you just mentioned on on
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  misconceptions
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  from what you read online. But I think,
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  you know, our company does a really good
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  job of
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  being,
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  transparent with families, having open lines of communication,
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  having, you know, good relationships with out outside
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  providers,
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  so that, you know, they're getting firsthand
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  information and medical opinions
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  versus just what they're seeing online, which isn't
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  always the most accurate.
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  Thank you so much. Susan, it is a
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  great pleasure to get a chance to visit
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  with you today, a remarkable leader and professional.
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  I wanna thank you for joining us on
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  this combined episode of the Becker's Healthcare podcast
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  and the Becker private equity and business podcast.
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  Thank you so much for joining us today.
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  Thanks so much for having me, Scott. I
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  really appreciate it.