Mr. Etra currently serves as Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Rethink. With almost three decades of successful international business experience, including 20 years as a serial entrepreneur, Mr. Etra was Co-Founder & CEO of R.E.R. International, a global supplier of printed materials to the retail industry.
He was a Consultant at Bain & Company, helping establish their NY office and also served as a Managing Director of Promodex Ltd., an importer and distributor of consumer appliances and industrial equipment in the Middle East. In addition, Mr. Etra served in the Israel Defense Forces and worked at Wasserstein, Perella & Co., specializing in M&A in the fields of healthcare, technology and natural resources.
Mr. Etra has won numerous awards including the Inc. 500, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, the SmartCEO Future 50, and CEO of the Year from Industry Era and Corporate Vision Magazines. He is also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). Mr. Etra has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Yale University. Born and raised in New York City, he is active in a variety of children’s causes and volunteers with organizations such as NY Cares and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Mr. Etra believes, “Success doesn’t happen right away. There’s the expression: “the ten year overnight success.” Aspiring leaders need to recognize that great companies take years to build and many mistakes are made along the way, but this is part of the process.”
Motivation Behind Company Establishment
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 1 in 6 new born children will be diagnosed with a developmental disability (such as autism), making such conditions more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is the main treatment methodology recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the US Surgeon General and the US National Institutes of Mental Health for treating individuals with developmental disabilities such as autism. However, the highly limited availability of credentialed ABA providers – only approximately 40,000 Board Certified Behavior Therapists worldwide – severely limits its potential benefit for the hundreds of millions of individuals globally with such disorders. Limited public support services, including in the education and healthcare systems, further amplify this challenge.
Rethink was founded in 2007 with a mission to address the significant challenge of how to effectively and affordably meet the treatment needs of this enormous and growing population worldwide with a significant dearth of trained professionals. The Company determined that the only way to deliver clinical best practice treatment in a scalable way was to leverage technology to train whoever was caring for the individual with the developmental disability how to deliver the treatment. This would impact all the entities revolving around the care of this population, including in the school, in the home, and in the healthcare system. Rethink found extensive research on the effectiveness of video modeling for training in fields such as medicine and the military and decided to combine this proven method of instruction with the proven and medically-recommended ABA treatment methodology, creating an online training and support system for individuals with a developmental disability and their caregivers worldwide.
Distinctive Clinical Services
RethinkCare – Rethink offers the industry-leading training and support platform for employees caring for dependents with a developmental disability as well as employees with a Neurodiverse condition. Rethink’s clients range from employers with under 1,000 employees to over 500,000 employees, and across its book of business Rethink covers over 7 million lives. Research clearly demonstrates the impact of caring for a dependent with a developmental disability – from over twice the rates of anxiety and depression to thousands of dollars annually in lost productivity. Indeed, over half of caregivers work fewer hours or leave the workforce to accommodate the needs of their child. The Rethink program helps support these employees, directly impacting their productivity in the workplace, and helps employers create a culture of wellness for their entire workforce.
Rethink Ed – Rethink offers the industry-leading special needs management and behavioral support platforms for public school districts. Serving all students with a special need as well as those requiring behavior support, the Rethink program is used by hundreds of districts in all 50 states, ranging from large urban systems like New York City, San Francisco, Dallas, Denver and others, down to small rural districts. The Rethink program allows districts to fully meet Federal IDEA requirements as well as a variety of state-based legislative mandates to provide an adequate education to students with a special need. The program also helps districts train staff and accurately measure the progress of a student population not subject to mainstream standardized testing. District clients have reported superior student outcomes and significant cost savings in mitigating the need for out of district placements that can run up to $100,000 per year per student for private programs.
Rethink Behavioral Health – Rethink offers the industry-leading practice management platform for behavioral health providers specializing in individuals with autism and related disorders. Used by hundreds of providers serving tens of thousands of children nationwide, the software helps improve treatment outcomes by simplifying/automating workflows, improving staff training, and ensuring standardization and clinical fidelity of care delivery.
Rethink is constantly innovating and always seeking to offer new products and services to meet its clients’ needs. On the Company’s near-term roadmap are tools to help managed care organizations better deliver care to patients with an autism diagnosis.
Goals and Strategic Vision for the Company
Rethink seeks to become one of the leading global behavioral technology companies serving all entities that revolve around the care of individuals with Neurodiverse conditions, including developmental disabilities such as autism, as well as the mental health of caregivers.
The Company will continue to expand in all the markets it currently serves, including Employer, K-12, Behavioral Health Provider and Managed Care, and will seek to be the top player in each of these end markets. Our priorities include clinical best practice products, continuous innovation, hiring the right talent, and global expansion.
Expected Challenges and Risks for Health Sector
In our lives, we are constantly faced with different challenges. We may face them as individuals or as a group. They may be personal, professional or both. Challenges can be difficult to overcome but they are also an opportunity to grow and learn more about yourself and the world around you.
The same is true in business. Challenges will always exist in any business and that’s what Mr. Etra thinks, there are some current and expected challenges that the Health sector is facing right now or might face in upcoming years. Here are some challenges Mr. Etra shared with us and how these challenges can be managed.
- A “perfect storm” of behavioral health challenges for working parents
The rise of mental health and developmental disability diagnoses has been at play for some time and is expected to create a one-two punch for working parents in the coming year.
More than 20% of adults and 16% of kids in the U.S. have a mental health disorder. Rates of developmental disability diagnoses including Autism, ADHD and intellectual disability (ID) have reached 18% on the tip of a two-decade rise.
Plus, parents whose children have developmental challenges are 2.4 times more likely to have mental health issues and twice as many emergency room visits.
This combination of mental health and developmental disabilities will put an almost unbearable burden on working parents, employers and the healthcare system as a whole.
- Employers demand more care: provider gaps create new opportunities for health innovators
The continued demand for services is high—behavioral health visits are up 17% from pre-COVID levels—and the provider shortage is not slowing down. By 2024, estimates show the U.S. will fall short between 14,280 and 31,109 psychiatrists. Psychologists, social workers and other mental health providers will be stretched thin as well.
The shortage is directly hitting the main private sector consumers of healthcare: employers. A recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 30% of large employers say their networks don’t have enough providers to ensure their employees have timely access to care.
It’s hitting working parents with children facing developmental challenges even harder, creating an opportunity for innovators to step in and provide alternative solutions. You may not be able to replace a therapist or psychologist, but you can provide additional assistance through digital tools, live caregiver support from behavioral therapists who can help with care plans, and education and training on everything from mental health and parenting to social and emotional learning.
- Healthcare consumerism will finally make inroads in behavioral health
Consumers have become accustomed to buying their own healthcare. They go online to search for providers, read reviews and use price transparency tools—to name a few.
The idea, however, has failed to take off in behavioral health, in a large part because implementing interventions has been a challenge, but much of that will change in 2023. Solutions that help parents learn how to interact with their children, address behaviors, teach skills and deliver interventions at home are already available.
Parents can get the help they need while they’re waiting to be placed with a provider, in between therapy sessions, or on the weekends.
Extending the care team to include the parent empowers them to take control of their child’s care, reduces stress, anxiety and the mental health issues caregivers face, and leads to better outcomes.
Research shows that providing the right training to caregivers improves the clinical efficacy of the way the intervention is delivered.
- Data will drive value-based behavioral healthcare
Value-based care has gained traction in most areas of healthcare, except for behavioral health. Without sufficient outcomes data, it’s difficult to establish the level of intervention based on the diagnosis. And without a way to predict outcomes, it’s nearly impossible to assess whether the provider is delivering quality care.
Some companies are already analyzing clinical outcomes data points to determine recommendations for interventions, including the number of hours and skills a patient needs.
And in the new year, expect to see data sets being used to determine outcomes and track patients to ensure they’re achieving the recommended outcomes. This work is driven by payers and self-insured companies who are becoming focused on results.
As behavioral health embraces data-driven results, patients will receive more appropriate interventions, providers will be measured on their performance, and reimbursement will be tied to better outcomes. Finally,
- Digital will be leveraged to improve health equity
Healthcare disparities are an ongoing issue for children with developmental challenges.
A report by The Autism Intervention Research Network on Physical Health found that two-thirds of kids with autism from low-income households were black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). These children had lower levels of access to care compared to white children with autism.
As a result of low reimbursement rates, however, most traditional providers don’t accept Medicaid, and traditional Medicaid agencies don’t have the expertise to treat these children.
Innovative digital solutions will equip providers with the tools to address these underserved populations, and deliver it at scale to provide additional clinical resources that didn’t previously exist.
Workflow automation tools can lift the administrative burden from the clinician, including training staff, writing care plans and tracking progress so they can operate at scale in a clinical best practice manner. Solutions like these break down socioeconomic barriers, increase access and improve health equity.
Rethink is unique in that it leverages a common platform and suite of solutions to serve multiple end markets simultaneously, each with its own unique customer characteristics and go to market strategies. The structure of the organization, with Senior Executive leadership having a strong management layer underneath (eac end market has its own general manager) allows for autonomous decision-making and rapid and effective response to individual market dynamics.
A Great Leader
Mr. Etra believes that, “Empathetic leaders create a culture where imperfection is something to learn from and build upon, not something to hide. As a leader, admitting when you make a mistake or asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s practicing vulnerability, which makes one that much of a stronger leader. Taking risks is a crucial part of embracing vulnerability and leading as a risk-taker creates a culture for your team to also dare to be bold and innovative.”
Mr. Etra prefers to lead by example and believes that leaders who show their appreciation in the form of praise or recognition will naturally attract and inspire those around them. Employees deserve to feel as though their efforts are being acknowledged by superiors. It instills confidence in themselves and helps boost productivity levels. When faced with criticism, he tries to step back, assess the situation and be patient without reacting impulsively.
“Too many leaders get defensive, focus more on their reputation, and overreact, rather than evaluate the situation at hand. I believe that one of the most important qualities of leadership is being a good listener. Too many times leaders turn the criticism around on the person speaking up, instead of seeing it as an opportunity to learn from someone else.” he says
“Our customers are the reason for our business. That’s why we believe it’s important to consider our customers in everything we do. Keeping our customers happy will not only drive sales but also build customer loyalty for the long haul. Accordingly, we proactively ask our customers for feedback, and we take action to address any issues that they bring to our attention. We also create new products based on the needs of our customers and we are in regular touch with them, seeking to understand their pain points so that we can build innovative solutions that will address them.” he asserts