Speaker 0: This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity podcast. This will also be a special combined episode with Becker's HealthCare. This episode today, we're gonna feature a brilliant woman leader, Susan Barrett, who's a general counsel and chief compliance officer of a company called Montanito. And Montanito is in the eating disorder area. She's a brilliant leader.

We'll talk a little bit about her career, about what Montanito does, where they're most focused, the trends we're watching, and a lot more. Susan, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Montanito?

Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. So, yeah, I'm Susan Barrett. I am the general counsel and the chief compliance officer at Montanito. We are a leading provider of eating disorder treatment.

So we have services through approximately 50 brick and mortar locations as well as virtually across The US. So we're doing every level of care here. It's inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and more recently outpatient levels of care as well. So it's a comprehensive staff. We have psychiatrists, other allied health care providers like nurse practitioners, therapists, registered dietitians, nurses, recovery coaches, you know, all of them play a part in the recovery journey.

So I've been with the company for a little over three years now. It's an excellent place to work, smart, passionate colleagues. And just from a personal standpoint, it's pretty rewarding just given the number of, clients that we've helped recover from eating disorders, which is a pretty deadly, mental health disease.

Speaker 0: So so fascinating sort of growth story for for the for the company, for Montanito in an area where there's so much prevalence and so much challenge and so important. Talk about as you head into 2026, what are you most focused on and excited about at Montanito?

Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm excited about the, you know, the continued opportunity to increase the access to care both, you know, brick and mortar and virtually to reach more, patients that are in need of the services. So, you know, last year, we had Andy Blankenmeier. He was appointed our CEO. He's really passionate about the work that we do.

Really, two new board members. They've really deep expertise in health care and behavioral health. We had our, you know, twenty twenty five outcomes report, which all of that showed, you know, really strong symptom reduction and client satisfaction. So I expect all of this to continue. It's it's a good time to be a part of the behavioral health space, in my opinion, because there's so many people to reach here.

And I think it's exciting, you know, for the company to continue to grow, and and, everyone that I work with is super passionate about what we're doing. And so it's I think we can continue the good services, the good outcomes, and just continue to reach more people virtually in in person.

Speaker 0: I'd I'd want to talk to you for a moment about leadership because Andy Blankenmeier is a fantastic leader. You yourself are having a fantastic leadership career. I I saw recently you were named as a top counsel, in in a certain group, and and congratulations. Talk a little bit about when you think about leadership, about what resonates with you, what types of skill sets, and what advice might you give to emerging leaders? I I I remember Andy from I think when he was in Ohio before he was with this company and a and a tremendous leader.

But but talk about, like, your own leadership thoughts, what you see in Andy, what you see in people generally that you would maybe give advice to on emerging leaders.

Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I think from my perspective, you know, the number one thing is to, you know, work hard and do good work. That's obviously step one. But you have to build relationships and trust with the people that you work with. I mean, particularly in my space, you know, being the chief compliance officer and the general counsel, I want people to feel that they can reach out to me at any time with any question or concern because, you know, I wanna be proactive in in addressing issues.

I want people to feel comfortable, and I want them to feel, you know, I'm internalizing their problems and making it my problem and being innovative with them to find a solution. So I think it's either you wanna be responsive. You gotta understand the full picture from people. Don't be afraid to pick up the phone and just find ways to assist. And and people want to have a culture of compliance.

Right? They wanna do the right things, and so whatever I can do to assist them. There's no you know, I I am the only, attorney at the company right now, and anyone can reach out to me at any time. You know, it doesn't matter what I'm doing. It's it's all important to me.

So I think build that trust with your colleagues because when it comes to a situation where, you know, they are are stuck, you want them to look for look to you as a resource. You can protect the company from risk and liability in those situations. So, it's it's a it's a unique position to be in, but it's a really important role for company to have, you know, a leader, a general counsel, and and or a chief compliance officer that has those relationships with staff members.

Speaker 0: No. It's it's truly remarkable. And in the eating disorder space, what trends are you watching currently? What what sort of is top of mind in the eating disorders area?

Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I think for for me on the legal side, like, I do a daily review of, you know, the current administration and any impact on the health care sector, whether that's court decisions, like, for instance, you know, ninth circuit just issued the appellate ruling on ECRA. You know? We have the executive orders, how that impacts us, any actions by administrative bodies. You know?

I I handle all our employment work, you know, EEOC decisions, any HIPAA related with HHS. So I'm I'm constantly, you know, reviewing and seeing how that's evolving and impacting us. And then if it does, you know, it's it's determining next steps, whether that's training with employees, updating our policies, and and trying to be proactive versus reactive with the current administration and and their impact on health care. I think the other trend for us and, really, I think it's just anyone in health care right now who's in legal. You know, you kinda have to be on top of the latest laws and and regulations related to the use of technology and AI.

I mean, it's it's a hot topic right now and, you know, we want to increase efficiency in the patient care experience. So, you know, in order to do that, you know, we have to be able to manage risk and comply with HIPAA and and privacy laws. And, you know, that's definitely a newer topic in the past year or so, that we're you have to kinda be all over because it's it's important for the business.

Speaker 0: And and I can imagine that every family, every person that has a eating disorder is also looking at Chi ChiPT and online resources and so forth. And and are there challenges in sort of pushing through that and and being able to talk to patients, talk to families about both combining, converging the synergies and what they're seeing online versus what you folks are doing? Are those evolving issues?

Speaker 1: Those are evolving issues. I mean, the Internet in AI is is a great thing, right, in my opinion. It we can use it to to really enhance the the patient care experience, and I think there's a lot of value to it. There's also some dangers, you know, what you just mentioned on on misconceptions from what you read online. But I think, you know, our company does a really good job of being, transparent with families, having open lines of communication, having, you know, good relationships with out outside providers, so that, you know, they're getting firsthand information and medical opinions versus just what they're seeing online, which isn't always the most accurate.

Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Susan, it is a great pleasure to get a chance to visit with you today, a remarkable leader and professional. I wanna thank you for joining us on this combined episode of the Becker's Healthcare podcast and the Becker private equity and business podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker 1: Thanks so much for having me, Scott. I really appreciate it.