UNIFI Autism Care, the Medicaid-focused ABA provider that launched in mid-2023 with an ambitious model of integrated autism care, is winding down operations, co-founder Steven Merahn, MD, announced in a LinkedIn post this week.
“Sadly, after three years, the situation has become unsustainable, and we are winding down operations to ensure continuity for those children and families we have had the honor of caring for,” Merahn wrote.
The closure marks the end of a venture that aimed to fundamentally rethink how ABA therapy relates to the broader pediatric healthcare system. UNIFI was founded by four co-founders: Breanne Hartley, PhD, BCBA-D, who serves as president and chief clinical officer; Merahn, a pediatrician and fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics who is listed on LinkedIn as the company’s founder and strategic advisor; Dorron Ferris; and Erica Outlaw. A November 2024 UNIFI press release announced Merahn’s appointment as Chief Medical Officer, though his LinkedIn profile does not reflect that title. The company was backed by the Mitchell Family Office, the investment vehicle of healthcare entrepreneur Mark Mitchell, who previously founded U.S. Medical Management and sold it to Centene Corp. in 2014.
UNIFI operated center-based ABA therapy locations in Evansville, Mishawaka, and Indianapolis’s Broad Ripple neighborhood, as well as telehealth services in Indiana and Iowa, according to the company’s website. A New York location referenced in early 2024 industry reporting no longer appears on UNIFI’s site. At its Evansville grand opening, the company projected it would create over 130 jobs and serve more than 100 families at that location alone, according to the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership.
An Integrated Model That Struggled to Find Payer Buy-In
UNIFI’s model was distinctive in the ABA landscape. Rather than treating autism in clinical isolation, the company formalized collaborative care agreements with major health systems and built treatment plans around child-centered developmental domains instead of diagnosis-associated symptoms and behavior — language drawn directly from Merahn’s post. The approach, he wrote, “gave the child health community a voice in the treatment planning process to ensure we addressed the ‘whole child.’” In previous interviews, Merahn had described the network of providers surrounding each patient — pediatricians, neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists — as a child’s “health resource community,” a concept central to UNIFI’s model. The company was especially dedicated to serving Medicaid beneficiaries in underserved communities, according to Merahn.
Merahn described the genesis of the company as a series of conversations that began roughly four years ago between himself and Hartley. “We started to have some dialog about what would be possible for autistic children and their families if we built some bridges between pediatrics and behavior analysis,” he wrote. “Over many conversations — sharing, and learning from, each other’s perspectives — we conceptualized a model of care that eventually became UNIFI Autism Care.”
But the model depended on payer willingness to support new service lines — and that support proved uneven. Merahn wrote that UNIFI “developed new service lines and pitched health plans new ways of caring” but “got some initial traction with some plans, but not with others,” leaving key elements of the company’s “Triple Aim value proposition” inaccessible. “Not that we didn’t try,” he added, “repeatedly calling on connections and knocking on doors that went unanswered.”
In a February 2024 podcast interview, Hartley had described the company’s strategy in more optimistic terms. “We’re essentially aiming for more systemic change,” she said. “That systemic change can’t necessarily happen by isolating robust health care services only within our own ABA organization.”
Leadership Turbulence Preceded the Closure
The wind-down follows a period of leadership instability. Mark Reddinger, who had served as CEO since November 2023, departed the company in late 2024. Hartley was subsequently elevated to president while retaining her chief clinical officer title. At the time, she told Autism Business News that the leadership shift “aligns with UNIFI’s core focus on clinically-led care, and the company’s four co-founders — Dr. Breanne Hartley, Dr. Steven Merahn, Dorron Ferris and Erica Outlaw — are a united leadership team with deep behavioral health expertise,” as reported by Behavioral Health Business.
Hartley also serves as president of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board’s Board of Directors, a position she has held since August 2024, making her one of the most prominent figures in ABA governance. UNIFI’s own press materials have highlighted the dual role, noting that she is “a leader in the field of behavior analysis, currently serving as President of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board.”
What the Closure Signals
UNIFI’s demise raises difficult questions for a field that has increasingly called for integrated care, whole-child models, and Medicaid access. The company built exactly what many industry leaders have advocated — collaborative relationships with health systems, treatment frameworks grounded in developmental domains, quality metrics aligned with pediatric best practices — and could not sustain itself financially.
The failure also arrives at a moment of broader strain for ABA providers serving Medicaid populations. Reimbursement rates in multiple states have faced pressure or outright cuts, and smaller operators without the patient volume or payer diversification of larger platforms have found it increasingly difficult to sustain operations. UNIFI’s integrated care model, by design, required buy-in not just from families but from health systems, payers, and referring physicians simultaneously — a multi-stakeholder dependency that, as Merahn’s account makes clear, proved difficult to convert into contracts.
The wind-down also leaves open questions about the families currently receiving care. Merahn wrote that the company is winding down “to ensure continuity for those children and families we have had the honor of caring for,” but did not specify a timeline or detail transition plans. For a provider that positioned itself as serving underserved, Medicaid-dependent communities in Indiana, the disruption could be felt acutely in areas with limited alternative providers.
