Location: 3900 W. Brown Deer Road, Suite 200, Brown Deer
Website: www.shorehavenbhi.com
Year Founded: 2005
Product or Service offered: Mental health and substance abuse treatment. Projected 2010 Revenue: $5 million
President and owner: Don Rosenberg
Other key leadership members: Lynn Godec, executive director; Carol Trout, director of in-home programs; Kari Strand, director of outpatient programs; Keli Carr, business office manager; Susan Laubeheimer, billing manager
Target Clientele: All Wisconsin residents and families could need mental health and/or substance use treatment at some point in life. About six to nine percent use such services annually. We have programs and services to meet the need for crisis, short-term, or long-term treatment for almost any emotional, behavioral, or psychological problems.
What has fueled your company’s growth?
“The top managers understand that all contacts with professional clients and consumers are both services rendered and promotion of the company. So we are on the lookout for market opportunities and the stability of our management team. Four of our six managers rose from production and understand our services from the inside. Our most important customer is actually our clinical team, about 100 dedicated professionals who are working hard to help people, many of whom have not received effective help before, and many of whom would not be able to access intensive services if we were not present in their communities. Serving our clinical team effectively is the cornerstone for serving consumers effectively. By finding market niches which are not well met by our competitors. We keep aware of what the competition is doing and where we can create programs using our strengths to meet needs they are not meeting. Continuous training of staff to improve skills at all levels, including services to consumers and even support staff sensitivity to the needs of our clients which has also helped us grow.”
What has been the biggest obstacle to your company’s growth?
“The biggest and most challenging issue is pricing. In our industry, the payers control pricing. So the value of our reimbursement goes down every year. Compared to 1989, when the general pricing level in our industry was set, we now earn about 45 percent as much per unit of service in real dollars. With such small margins and salaries which are flat, recruitment of top talent is difficult. Because public healthcare and education settings are not constrained by flat pricing and they can raise more funding, they can hire the same workers at higher wages and with better benefits. This also makes finding top talent a great challenge and expense. Another obstacle is that one of our largest programs is state funded and the regulations have become ever more restrictive and more difficult to meet. State regulation of our industry recently changed to a much more expensive and complex set of regulations, and the work we do is opaque. Unlike a manufacturing process or retail sales, for example, we cannot observe and directly improve what individual treatment professionals are doing moment-to-moment. So training, monitoring, legal compliance, and quality improvement are very expensive, complicated issues.”
Do you have any planned changes for your company in the coming months?
“We plan to add, develop, and promote innovative new programs which have significant revenue potential. These programs will require hiring additional production workers, psychotherapists, with little increase to overhead. We also plan to be more transparent with our management team about financial performance. We think this will help department heads work better toward common goals. We also expect to develop a comprehensive strategic plan. We have come up with at least two programs this summer which are unique in the field and which should have a significant positive impact in the community and for saving tax dollars, and attracting buyers.”
Who are the business people, locally or nationally, whom you admire? What traits do those people exhibit that make you admire them?
“We don’t have heroes. We admire ideas rather than individuals. Individuals cannot be emulated. Good ideas can be implemented. A couple of ideas we like are cliché, but very important. One idea is that the company which does not look for new business is planning to go out of business. Another is that the failure to plan is a plan for failure. We are concerned about the unintended consequences of seemingly unimportant acts; they often have much larger implications. We have some ideas which go against many others’ ideas such as being loyal to the staff, upgrading benefits, and working hard of retention. Another is to keep improving systems and the quality of the product and the workers will improve over time.”
What is the outlook for the business conditions of your industry over the next several months?
“Business should stay robust. The passage of parity legislation and health care reform should increase the pool of potential clients. We have identified some niches for which our services can be tailored. A number of counties have approached us to come into their regions with new ideas and programs. The main problem will be pricing, which is very tight.”
What has been your company’s key strategy for rising out of the recession?
“We are not in a recession. We have grown steadily through this period by staying with the same principles and leadership which brought us continuous growth over the past few years. Actually, the recession may have helped us in two ways, one by increasing the pool of job applicants from which to choose and second by increasing the number of potential clients. While many companies shy away from working with consumers on Badgercare, we are a company which tries to provide exceptional service to Badgercare consumers, with an eye towards helping the system save money because consumers receive great service. And the recession has increased the number of consumers in Badgercare.”
