Fort Lauderdale, FL, Oct. 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CentralReach, a leading provider of Autism and IDD Care software for ABA, multidisciplinary, and special education, concluded its 7th Annual CR Unite Autism and IDD Care Conference last week in Chicago. Industry professionals convened for an insightful multi-day event featuring keynote sessions, in-depth discussions on industry challenges, and recognition of provider excellence within the field.
For the first time, CR Unite featured an exclusive CEO Retreat, providing a dedicated forum for CEOs across the autism and IDD care community to exchange insights, explore shared challenges, and collaborate on the future of value-driven, tech-enabled care.
2025 Keynote: Moving from System of Record to System of Agents and Sharing the Future of Outcomes-Based Care in Autism and IDD
CentralReach’s CEO, Chris Sullens, kicked his keynote off by sharing updates of CentralReach’s progress over the last year, with highlights including:
- Strong revenue growth in 2025, extending CentralReach’s market leadership in the Autism and IDD Care market
- Joining Roper Technologies (Nasdaq: ROP), positioning CentralReach for accelerated innovation and continued momentum
- The rapid expansion and impact of its agentic AI product set including CR ScheduleAI, CR NoteGuardAI, CR NoteDraftAI, CR ClaimCheckAI and CR ClaimAcceleratorAI. Highlights of the impact from these products included annualized agentic scheduling of 3.6M appointments, protection of almost $2 billion in potential clawbacks through session note audit agent and over 100 million rule evaluations by its claim audit agent.
He shared his vision of the future for CentralReach’s platform, highlighting the significant investments in and progress toward its transition from a system of record to a system of agents and why it is uniquely positioned to bring this vision to life. The 2026 AI roadmap includes a significant expansion of its claim agents with a goal to fully automate the claims process, a rapid expansion of AI-powered video and audio solutions that power CR Care360, its agentic clinical platform that will enable CentralReach users to transform the care process and support its outcomes-based care (OBC) model for the autism and IDD space.
The keynote closed with a thought-provoking panel discussion with leading voices from the payor, employer, and technology communities discussing their perspectives on how the autism and IDD care industry can move from a fee-for-service to an outcomes-based care reimbursement model. Featured panelists included:
- Chris Sullens, CEO, CentralReach
- Ling Shao, SVP, Outcomes-Based Care, CentralReach
- Dr. Thomas Frazier, Chief Clinical Officer, CentralReach
- Dr. Douglas Nemecek, Chief Medical Officer – Behavioral Health, Evernorth Health Services
- Dr. Renee Schneider, Former Lead, Mental Health CoE, Google
The session addressed key challenges facing providers in demonstrating quality outcomes, noting that those relying on disconnected systems or manual processes often struggle with inconsistent data and limited measurability. Panelists shared how technology and automation can bridge these gaps by enabling individualized assessments, automatic progress tracking, and unified data insights, making outcomes easier to measure, analyze, and improve.
Dr. Frazier provided perspective on how advancements in data and decision-support tools can help clinicians better align treatment goals with meaningful outcomes, emphasizing that effective assessments should capture what matters most to the individual, family, and care team. Offering an industry-wide lens, Dr. Nemecek underscored the importance of standardized, technology-enabled metrics to improve transparency, reduce variability, and support payors in evaluating care quality and value. From the employer perspective, Dr. Schneider shared insights on how meaningful outcomes data empowers plan administrators and self-funded employers to make informed coverage decisions, ensuring that ABA services demonstrating measurable impact continue to receive support. Together, the panel reinforced the importance of measuring progress in ways that resonate not only clinically but also in terms of quality of life for individuals and families. The panel concluded with a shared perspective: better assessments drive better goals, better plans, and when combined with a robust, video-based clinical process, will materially increase the quality of care across the industry.
“As we look to the future of autism and IDD care delivery, transitioning to an outcomes-based care approach that is based on standardized, assessment-driven measures that define tangible progress for learners across the spectrum is essential,” says Sullens. “This standardized quality measurement will raise the bar of care for those receiving services, providing financial rewards for providers that exceed those quality standards and remove the burdensome operational expense needed to root out fraud, waste and abuse today for both providers and payors. Technology is the key to solving this issue in a scalable way and, as the panelists all pointed out, with its acquisition of AI.Measures and SpectrumAi, CentralReach is the only platform that can provide this solution for the autism and IDD care market. It’s an exciting time for the industry, and I’m proud of our team for their relentless focus on innovation that is driving its agentic transformation.”
Sullens also previewed exclusive findings from CentralReach’s forthcoming Autism and IDD Care Market Report during the keynote. Set to be released publicly soon, the report equips providers with data-driven insights to better understand how their organizations compare to the broader market, identify opportunities for business and clinical improvement, and ultimately strengthen outcomes for the individuals they serve.
Tech-Enabled Parent Engagement: Improving Outcomes for Learners by Leveraging the CR CareCompanion App
In a session held in collaboration with CentralReach partner Beyond Autism Services, CentralReach’s VP of Product, Clinical Outcomes and AI, Zach Sullens, and Beyond Autism Services’ Director of Client Relations, Jennifer Bender, and Director of Quality and Training, Theresa Praul-DeFrank, underscored the pressing need for parent and caregiver engagement to improve outcomes in autism and IDD care. As the autism care gap continues to weigh on the industry, caregivers need more support. Equipping parents with the right tools is essential not only for supporting providers but also for enabling learners to progress faster while helping families feel more connected.
“CentralReach lays the groundwork for meaningful parent engagement and outcomes, simplifying systems and aligning our team so we can focus on building a partnership with families from the very first conversation,” said Jennifer Bender from Beyond Autism Services.
CR CareCompanion is a cornerstone of CentralReach’s CR Care360 AI-powered clinical platform and is designed to elevate the role and effectiveness of caregivers in the care delivery process. Current features include instructionally designed parent training, journaling, and HIPAA-compliant communications between a child’s therapist and family. This solution reflects CentralReach’s commitment to enhancing client and caregiver engagement and supporting meaningful outcomes both in session and at home.
Looking ahead, CentralReach outlined the role CR CareCompanion will play in its 2026 roadmap for Care360, CentralReach’s agentic care delivery platform that complements its market-leading EMR. It will introduce new capabilities through AI.Measures, enabling providers to check in with caregivers to assess and track quality of life and sentiment over time, along with expanding skills assessments for learners. Also announced in the 2026 roadmap are CentralReach’s plans to update CareCompanion with more features to support parents and reinforce skills at home. With upcoming releases, parents will soon be able to view caregiver progress summaries, receive appointment reminders, sign timesheets and session notes, submit payments, and more, all within the app — making CareCompanion the go-to hub for managing daily tasks and staying connected throughout the entire care journey.
Empower families. Strengthen connections. Sign up for the CR CareCompanion waitlist: https://go.centralreach.com/waitlist/care-companion.
CentralReach Recognizes Honorees in 4th Annual Autism and IDD Care Awards
Another highlight was the conference’s 4th Annual Autism and IDD Care Awards, a program celebrating individuals and organizations making extraordinary contributions to the field. This year, CentralReach recognized winners across several categories, including:
- Innovator of the Year
- Exceptional Leadership Award
- Rising Star in Autism and IDD Care
- Clinical Team Excellence
- Operations Team Excellence
This year’s awards program received hundreds of submissions and shortlisted over 205 honorees overall, with 108 new organizations represented for 2025. While approximately 30 honorees attended the ceremony in person at CR Unite 2025, all 200+ individuals were celebrated for their outstanding contributions to the industry.
To view the full list of this year’s winners, please visit: https://events.centralreach.com/event/autism-idd-care-awards/2025-honorees.
To cap off this year’s success, CentralReach is proud to announce that CR Unite 2026 will take place in Boston, Massachusetts. The company looks forward to bringing together clinicians, providers, and industry leaders in one of the nation’s most innovative healthcare and technology hubs for another year of learning, connection, and inspiration.
About CentralReach
CentralReach is a leading provider of autism and IDD care software, providing a complete, end-to-end software and services platform that helps children and adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) – and those who serve them – unlock potential, achieve better outcomes, and live more independent lives. With its roots in Applied Behavior Analysis, the company is revolutionizing how the lifelong journey of autism and IDD care is enabled at home, school, and work with powerful and intuitive solutions purpose-built for each care setting.
Trusted by more than 200,000 professionals globally, CentralReach is committed to ongoing product advancement, market-leading industry expertise, world-class client satisfaction, and support of the autism and IDD community to propel autism and IDD care into a new era of excellence. For more information, please visit CentralReach.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook.
