Huey Partners With Catalight To Help Democratize Access to Newest Autism Care Models

Overview

Huey, a telehealth-based autism services provider, was founded in 2022 with a clear and personal goal: to bring innovative, evidence-based and family-centered autism care to families across the United States. For founder and CEO Raffay Mirza, supporting his autistic sibling while growing up helped shape the Huey vision of delivering adaptable, neuro-affirming clinical care. Catalight, a nonprofit behavioral health organization known for developing scalable autism interventions, became Huey’s first partner and has helped Mirza and his company’s rapid growth.

The Challenge: Giving Families Evidence-Based Options

Mirza noted a critical gap in the continuum of care: After families go through early intervention, there’s often a lack of appropriate services, particularly during critical life transitions like adolescence and early adulthood.

Growing up in Australia – where disability services are universally funded – Mirza saw firsthand the effectiveness of parent-mediated interventions and holistic, family-focused models. After moving to the United States, he asked “what’s available?” for personalized care only to find choices, innovation and systems in the United States were more limited. He was driven to disrupt the status quo with services that deliver “the right treatment at the right time.”

The Solution: Catalight’s RUBI and Compass Behavioral Programs

Huey’s introduction to Catalight began through Vice President of Caregiver-Mediated Solutions Karen Bearss, who helped them explore alternative models – ultimately leading to a formal partnership where Huey implemented two of Catalight’s innovative programs: RUBI (a parent-training program for managing challenging behaviors in children) and Compass Behavioral (a self-determined coaching model for autistic teens and young adults).

• RUBI enabled Huey to provide telehealth-based, evidence-supported caregiver training, particularly effective for families in rural areas or otherwise without access to in-home or clinic-based services. Huey clinicians emphasize how RUBI created consistency across all environments and built long-term caregiver confidence – outcomes that positively impact families in a very real and daily way.

• Compass Behavioral filled a significant gap in care for adolescents – a demographic with noted unmet needs. It empowered clients to work on goals ranging from executive functioning and social skills to self-exploration of identity. The program’s flexibility and focus on autonomy resonated with clients, many of whom didn’t need intensive support in their childhood.

Results

Since launching services with Catalight in 2023, Huey has:

• Served more than 200 families across California, including 100+ Compass Behavioral clients and 50+ RUBI clients.

• Achieved more than 80% of clinical goals across all clients in 2024, surpassing Catalight’s target goal of 75%.

• Increased goal achievement in early 2025 to greater than 90%. Huey is improving clinical outcomes, even within the 3-4 month structure of RUBI and Compass Behavioral.

• Seen consistently positive feedback from families, many of whom expressed relief at finally having tailored services for their families, older children and teens.

• Experienced scalable growth due to its 100% telehealth model, allowing for planned geographic expansion without significant overhead. 

• Maintained a lean, mission-driven business allowing for full focus to high quality care and impact.

• Delivered a suite of high-quality, personalized services at the right time, thereby reducing costs down the line for the health systems and insurance companies.

Impact on the Industry

Huey’s collaboration with Catalight represents a shift toward more adaptable, cost-effective autism care that spans from diagnosis into adulthood. Mirza believes that programs like RUBI and Compass Behavioral not only meet family needs, but also reduce long-term healthcare costs by intervening early and training caregivers effectively.

While individuals with behavioral challenges or severe needs may require in-person, high-hour support, the vast majority who need less-intensive care would benefit from having a range of parent-mediated options rather than being limited to a single applied behavior analysis (ABA) model. Options allow them to choose what works best for their family.

From a workforce perspective, clinician satisfaction has improved as professionals experience reduced burnout and renewed passion for meaningful work beyond high-hour ABA. As one Huey clinician said, interventions like RUBI and Compass Behavioral give practitioners the chance to learn the needs of clients and engage in more personalized, impactful sessions. That helps counter the alarming burnout rate – which has become a significant industry-wide problem – and allows clinicians to take on a greater amount and variety of clients while optimizing their impact.

Looking Ahead

Huey aims to become a national leader in progressive autism interventions, expanding its offerings to include programs like RUBI for autistic adults and their caregivers and Project ImPACT, a coaching program for children with communication delays. With a growing body of data that shows better outcomes with eased financial burdens, Huey urges insurers to incentivize flexible, family-centered models – thus transforming autism care at scale.