Lance Folske, MA MFT

Lance is a nationally recognized expert in Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorder operations, strategy, and analytics. With over 15 years of hands-on experience leading and transforming behavioral health facilities, Lance brings a rare blend of frontline insight and executive-level acumen to help organizations elevate their performance, stand out in competitive markets, and drive sustainable outcomes.

Lance began his career as a Mental Health Technician and quickly rose through the ranks, completing the prestigious CEO Training Program at Universal Health Services (UHS), a Fortune 500 healthcare leader. In just six years, he advanced from frontline roles to becoming CEO, serving as chief executive of three distinct behavioral health hospitals across multiple states. These included diverse settings serving Active-Duty Military, Geriatric, Eating Disorders, Sex Offender populations, and more across the full continuum of care: Inpatient, Residential, PHP, IOP, ECT, MAT, and Outpatient.

His leadership portfolio includes multi-site and multi-state oversight, where he collaborated with corporate teams and local stakeholders to create measurable impact, scale services, and optimize performance metrics. Lance has held roles across nearly every department—Intake, Utilization Review, Clinical Program Development, Risk and Compliance, Performance Improvement, Business Development, COO, CEO, and SVP of Operations, giving him a 360-degree perspective few in the industry can match.

Key Accomplishments

Achieved highest Google and patient satisfaction ratings across the company
Consistently exceeded budgeted EBITDA and census targets
Led company-best HBIPS performance and sustained top-tier clinical outcomes
Maintained staff turnover at an industry-leading 14%
Successfully opened and scaled satellite PHP/IOP locations
Spearheaded new hospital development and facility construction
Implemented telehealth assessments now accounting for 43% of total volume
Sustained Medicaid DRG at $680 with average LOS of 4.7 days
Maintained denial rates below 3%
Delivered 117% of budgeted ADC for 812 consecutive days
Achieved drug cost efficiency at just $8.43 per patient day

Pure and Mixed Strategy

In behavioral health and addiction treatment, success depends not just on clinical quality—but on strategic decision-making rooted in how people behave, adapt, and interact. Drawing from Game Theory, particularly the concepts of Pure and Mixed Strategies, we apply a systems-thinking lens to align individual actions with collective outcomes.

Originating from the Nash Equilibrium, Game Theory models decision-making in environments where outcomes depend not just on your actions, but on how others respond. A pure strategy follows a consistent, predetermined course of action. A mixed strategy, by contrast, introduces probability and adaptability—adjusting based on the dynamic behavior of others.

In behavioral healthcare, these models have real-world parallels:

- Pure strategies may resemble rigid treatment protocols, fixed staffing models, or blanket program structures—efficient but often blind to nuance.

- Mixed strategies reflect adaptive operations—where staffing, engagement techniques, and clinical approaches are adjusted in real-time based on patient needs, market shifts, and frontline feedback.

Balancing the two is essential. Leaders must consider the self-interests of patients, clinicians, and stakeholders while pursuing system-wide goals like outcomes, access, revenue, and staff sustainability. Misalignment between rigid policies and human behavior leads to dropouts, burnout, or poor performance.At the core of our consulting approach is this understanding: strategy must evolve with context. We help organizations identify when to hold steady and when to pivot—creating operational systems that account for real human behavior, not just theoretical models.Whether you're optimizing treatment engagement, rolling out new service lines, or managing productivity vs. burnout—adopting the right strategy at the right time is the key to sustainable success.