Mainstay - Proactively improving the health of people with developmental disabilities and the organizations that support them.

		About Mainstay’s mission is to help people with intellectual or developmental disabilities (DD) lose 5 million pounds while improving the provider bottom line by $50 million. The professionals running the organization have been successfully broadening their impact in the industry—specifically among waiver-based populations—over the past 20 years. Demand for Mainstay’s products has catapulted over the past 12 months in response to unrelenting pressures bearing down on providers from a number of forces: economic, moral, and legal/opportunistic (families and other parties are demanding better nutrition and lowered obesity rates which would lead to dramatically diminished secondary illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and depression in waiver settings). Mainstay has two primary products, both cultivated through a supportive working relationship with the federal government’s arm responsible for improving the nutrition of people with disabilities in the U.S. Fiore™ (fee-or-ee), Mainstay’s preventative health program, is a series of proven, easy-to-use supports reducing weight and medication usage that diminish obesity, pre-diabetic conditions and high blood pressure specifically among people with DD in waiver settings. These outcomes are achieved quickly while food costs and shrinkage simultaneously reduce, despite an increase in nutrition, menu variety and choice. Staff and clients become more engaged in, and knowledgeable about, healthy eating and the menu planning and preparation process. Time savings for DSPs are significant since menus, meal preparation steps and grocery shopping lists are provided each day. Managerial data produced by the Fiore program allows EDs and RDs to work proactively. Fiore is a licensed product that providers pay a modest sum to access on a monthly basis. Mainstay also achieves maximum food stamp reimbursement—new or incremental—for people with developmental disabilities living in waiver settings, supported by for-profit and nonprofit agencies. The impact of these funds on quality of life and provider financials is material. Mainstay only charges a fraction of the food stamp upside realized, and only when successful; there is no upfront expense whatsoever. Mainstay’s principals are MBA graduates from one of the nation’s top business schools. Jim Vail and Sylvia Landy were recently asked to write legislation, which was enacted in 2009, regarding nutritional and health standards for people with disabilities. They regularly meet with officials and legislators regarding their initiatives and its positive impact on the Medicaid system and the nation’s healthcare crisis. A few years ago, Jim took time out from Mainstay’s day-to-day to learn more in a hands-on fashion; he stepped up to run a faltering provider agency supporting a residential and vocational population of over 300 people with DD. Within a few years, the organization received unprecedented, back-to-back 3 and 4-year CQL accreditations placing it in the top 1% of providers in the nation. Jim’s efforts at repositioning the organization as a health provider and one with a differentiable product/service attracted new funding, many new consumers, community admiration, and leadership status. During the same timeframe, operating costs decreased and consumers achieved phenomenal health gains. Sylvia launched a healthcare company from her basement that was later sold as a nationwide concern to Fortune 500 Baxter International. Her early background includes a special education degree, which she used to teach young adults with disabilities in both classroom and workshop settings. Mainstay’s full-time, classically-trained chef has been cooking alongside people with developmental disabilities for years; his ongoing involvement guarantees that recipes are tasty, appealing and cost-effective, appropriate for a multitude of specialized diets, and easy for staff and clients to prepare. Mainstay has repeatedly proven its impact in diverse waiver-based settings among both for-profit and nonprofit providers. The organization maintains strategic alliances with the USDA, the Feinberg School of Health at Northwestern University, the University of Illinois’ Institute on Disability and Human Development, and the American Dietetic Association. Click for more information about our Management team and strategic alliances.

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