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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.