Autism Services That Change Lives with Cristina Busu

0:01John Lee Dumas:Light that spark fire nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down autism services that literally change lives. To drop these value bombs, I brought to Cristina Busu and EO Fire Studios. Cristina is the dedicated owner of Help Hope Solutions, where she applies behavioral science to create meaningful, individualized progress for clients and their families. And today we talk about the why behind the work, from private pay to insurance, balancing the clinical and the business, and oh so much more.

0:33John Lee Dumas:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Christina and our sponsors. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com. Fire Nation, are you ready to build something special in the next 50 days? Check out my free YouTube series, 50 Days to Something, short and strategic step-by-step videos by me, JLD.

1:13John Lee Dumas:On day 50, you'll have a valuable asset, and the best part is it's completely free. Visit eofire.com slash YouTube and start day one today. Christina, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. So I think in today's society, everybody thinks that success happens overnight. And in my experience, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. and so I think that's most people think that you know we just have our big break overnight and then you know everything kind of falls into place and that's typically not the case and the other thing that I hear a lot is that you know once you become successful it just stays with you which I think that it's a big misconception because a lot of times success has to be maintained it doesn't just stay because you just accomplished something.

2:16You have to keep adding to it and you have to keep maintaining it. So I feel that every time I talk to people, this is the question that I, you know, that I always get from people. Well, how is it to just be successful and have nothing else to do anymore? And I'm like, well, it's not quite like that. So I think that's the biggest point for me. It doesn't happen overnight.

2:39John Lee Dumas:Love that answer. I really do, Christina. And I also love our topic today, which is autism services that change lives. So let's talk about the why behind the work because working with children with autism, it's more than a profession. It's literally a calling. So what first drew you into this work and what continues to anchor you when things get hard? So for me, I worked with children with very different abilities and disabilities once I graduated with my master's. And for me, children with autism kind of created a challenge because while working with them, I realized that the misconception was that they can't learn.

3:20But the reality is that once you know how to teach them, they can learn a lot of things. So for me, that was what drew me. How do I change what I do to help these children be successful and learn and, you know, be in school and play with friends and go to college eventually. So for me, that was like my first, the first thing that drew me to autism. And so, you know, over many, many years of practice, for me, child, you know, child success and finding that way to teach somebody who can't learn in the traditional way has been what motivated me the most. So, you know, when things got hard and we couldn't find a way to teach children, we just sat down and, you know, kind of started fresh and found ways to teach kids who couldn't learn in your traditional way.

4:20And what keeps me going is seeing the progress happen. For me, you know, seeing a child who couldn't say anything, learn how to say their first word, or working with children who are nonverbal or non-local and they learn how to type, you know, hi, how are you? Or I'm lost, I need help. That's what keeps me going all the time. It's seeing that progress.

4:49John Lee Dumas:That's really powerful. And Fire Nation, I mean, this is what we're looking for in this world, to wake up and to say, I'm going to make a difference today. I'm going to have impact. I'm going to add value to somebody's life today. So let's kind of shift gears and talk about going from private pay to insurance. Because I think a lot of people struggle, and many providers actually struggle, with the shift of going from private pay models to insurance-based care. So what did the transition look like for you? And what business lessons actually came from navigating the reimbursement, the compliance, the scale?

5:20John Lee Dumas:What did that look like? Well, many lessons. So I started Help Hope Solutions at a time where there's no insurance coverage. So everything was private pay at that point. And so you go from a model where you have consistent and dependable cash flow. Every two weeks, you know, you bill the parents and you get paid to switching to this whole new world for us that nobody knew how to bill insurance for our therapy. There were no billers that could do it for us because nobody knew how to do it. It was so, so new. So going not from not knowing how to do it, but also not realizing that reimbursement was delayed by 60 to 90 days.

6:08So we went from a two-week flag to a 90 days, which was extremely difficult at times. For us, luckily, you know, we didn't have all clients go to insurance at once. So we had a bit of a transition, which helped a lot. But I feel that that's the number one thing that parents and professionals don't know is that in insurance world, it can take up to 90 days to get paid. That is if everything goes right. If your claims don't get bounced back, if you don't get denials and so forth. So for us, it was not only not having enough capital to function at a certain point in time. Thankfully, we had savings and we didn't really struggle in that area.

6:52But we also had to learn a whole new profession because I had to learn, you know, what are CPT codes? How do you bill for these? How do you get pre-authorization? Because all our services require pre-authorization. How do you file appeals when they don't get approved? How do you fight for, you know, payments and so forth? So it's been a process. It's been a learning process. Things constantly change in insurance world. So this is another aspect that a lot of providers kind of get caught off guard with, that insurance is not segment. Every three to six months, something changes. So you have to keep up with everything.

7:31You are responsible to keep up with what the policies for reimbursement are. You know, what are the criteria for medical necessity and all those things that I had no idea before insurance kicked in. So there's been a lot of lessons, a lot of learning and a lot of growth. But I do have to say, as hard as it is to fight insurance and to get reimbursement for the services, it has opened the door for so many families and children to get the services that they deserve.

8:05John Lee Dumas:Well, I really think that this kind of shifts naturally into the next topic that I want to get into, which is balancing the clinical with the business, Christina. Because in a field that's driven by care and outcomes, how do you personally hold clinical integrity while also running a sustainable growing business? I think for us, the hardest part of maintaining the clinical, the balancing it all out was the insurance reimbursement model that requires a lot more paperwork than we had to do in the past. And that time you spend doing paperwork takes a lot of time out of your clinical duties. So for us, managing and balancing that was a bit challenging at first.

8:56But with me being, you know, a single proprietor and not having, you know, any strings attached to any investors or anything like that, It has been very helpful to be able to kind of sit down and switch kind of positions and adjust our business model to still maintain a high level quality services, but kind of streamline other processes. So I think that's the dynamic part of being a business owner in this environment where you have to constantly be involved and see what's the part that needs to be adjusted the most in order to maintain both. Because you need both. You need the high-quality care, but you also need a good business model because if you don't have an income, then you can't provide the quality services or any services for that matter.

9:53and that is still a constant battle because it's constant changes in the insurance world so we have to adjust and so forth.

10:00John Lee Dumas:I mean, Fire Nation, Christina's bringing up so many good points that I really hope you're taking notes on because she's somebody that's in the rank and file doing the work every single day. And we're gonna talk about the biggest challenges in autism treatment today, measuring success across a lifetime and so much more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. There are two things I know about you for sure. You're an action taker and you love to learn. Otherwise, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast. So I'm excited to share another source of inspiration I know you're going to love, Blinkist.

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11:06John Lee Dumas:Turn your spare moments into learning moments with Blinkist. Go to Blinkist.com slash fire to start your free trial and lock in an extra 30 % off today. That's Blinkist.com slash fire. Fire Nation, ideas are exciting, but systems will allow you to create freedom. That is where High Level comes in. High Level allows you to build and run your entire business from one platform. Website builder and hosting, funnel and landing pages, email marketing, automation and workflows, calendar booking, payments and subscriptions, even course and membership hosting. Everything works together seamlessly. Plus, award-winning 24-7 support, so you are never stuck.

11:45John Lee Dumas:And when you go through my link at highlevelfire.com, you unlock my full bonus stack, a 30-day free trial of High Level with full access, a private 50-minute coaching call with me, weekly live office hours with me, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something execution roadmap, and more. Stop piecing tools together. Start building momentum. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Christina, we're back. And I want to talk about the biggest challenges in autism treatment today. I mean, from access to waitlist, to staffing, to burnout.

12:23John Lee Dumas:I mean, what are the most pressing challenges facing autism care right now? All of that that you mentioned. I think the biggest challenge continues to be staffing, mainly because there is higher need than there are providers. The, you know, ABA field is still lacking a lot of BCBAs. So that is the number one. Finding providers has been the number one challenge for all of us. Access to care also becomes a bit challenging, especially in the last, I would say, three to five years. We have seen such a huge push for early intervention, which is great because, you know, Early intervention makes a huge difference, but I feel that if providers start capping services to early intervention, it gives the impression that adolescents and adults cannot be helped, which is very, very far from the truth.

13:25So accessibility of services for adolescents and adults continues to be very limited. And reimbursement for those services is very limited because, you know, after a certain age, insurance companies are really starting to cut services and kind of try to put these individuals in different services that may or not may may or not be available. I can tell you here where we live in Texas, there's very, very little resources for adolescents and adults. with disabilities in general. So, you know, we do face a lot of challenges and with the number of children, you know, increasing that are being diagnosed, but also with kids that are graduating from early intervention, not having many places to go, we still continue to see a huge need for services at a later time in life.

14:18John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, I want to really jump into the next topic right now, which is about measuring success across a lifetime. So Christina, autism care, I mean, it doesn't end in childhood. So how do you define and measure success as clients grow into both adolescence and adulthood? Success is not linear, right? So, you know, what is success for one person does not mean that the same thing is success for another person. So what we look at is how, for me, success is how far do we have to make these people independent? How far do we have to go until they can access different sets of services or they can continue their education?

15:10So for us, success is measured in different ways. Some of our kids are, some of my first clients are graduating from college. Some kids are successful when they can live independently and get a job. Some kids are successful when they can't communicate by using a communication device when they get lost and they can't speak. So success is measured in different ways at different ages and for different people. But for us, the ultimate measure is can you function independently or with as minimal sport as possible in the environment that you're ultimately going to be as an adult? And that's where we concentrate our resources because being independent is different for different people.

15:59John Lee Dumas:Let's talk about growing where the needs are. I mean, as demand continues to rise, how are you personally deciding both where and how to grow while staying mission aligned and client centered? So for us, growth has always been driven by our clients' needs. So we may grow by adding another center that serves, you know, children who need these services in a different area. But currently, I think the growth that we are looking at is in the adolescent and adult kind of environment, more so in the schooling aspect, because, you know, all the changes that happen in the special education programs and all the lack of funding that we are starting to see for all these services.

17:00there's a huge need for children to access schools that they cannot access anywhere else. So they may have behavioral issues that stop them from accessing private schools, or they may have behavioral issues that stop them from accessing special education services within the public district without being completely isolated. So we are starting to look at, you know, adding those services that are going to benefit our clients on the long run. So maybe a classroom for the future or maybe, you know, adding other multidisciplinary clinics in an area that is just growing in our community. So those are the metrics that we use when we, you know, we look at what do our clients need and what do other people need?

17:50And we try to provide that in the communities that need them.

17:56John Lee Dumas:So, Christina, for clinicians or founders who are listening right now, and they're feeling torn between serving families well, but also building a sustainable organization, what's the one principle that should guide every decision they make? Balance and expertise. And I'm saying that because you have to find a balance. You cannot provide services if you don't have a revenue system, right? So, but also you can't just maximize your profits at the detriment of quality services. So for me is what do I need? What expertise do I need to get? What training do I need to find to make sure that I can balance these two aspects?

18:43And for me, the clinical aspect is a little bit easier because obviously I'm a clinician, but the business aspect is a little bit more challenging because I have to figure out how do I make work? You know, how do I balance? How do I balance the clinical need with what I need as far as income? So, you know, finding that balance and learning what you need to get there. I think it's what every founder of a company needs to figure out on their own because it looks different from industry to industry. but it's also important to find what works for your industry, what works for your personal goals and how to make that happen, you know, with not compromising either.

19:25John Lee Dumas:Christina, if Fire Nation is listening and they want to connect with you, they want to learn more about what you have going on, what's your call to action for our listeners today? Find the need and put the work in to make sure that no child is left behind. Find the resources, check whatever box you need to check, talk to your representatives, and make sure that our future gets every opportunity they have to be able to become functional and independent members of our communities. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with CB and JLD today, so keep up that heat.

20:17John Lee Dumas:And for links to everything that we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Christina in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And Christina, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Christina for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world? If yes, we are now accepting applications for EO Fire. To learn more about becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest, and I'll catch you there or on the flip side.

20:57John Lee Dumas:Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevellfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevellfire.com, highlevellfire.com. Fire Nation, are you ready to build something special in the next 50 days? Check out my free YouTube series, 50 Days to Something. Short and strategic step-by-step videos by me, JLD. On day 50, you'll have a valuable asset. And the best part is it's completely free.

21:37John Lee Dumas:Visit eofire.com slash YouTube and start day one today.

21:49Thank you.