Today we’d like to introduce you to Bruce Maloof.
Bruce, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started this venture in 1996. I had been quite involved in my professional community and served on a number of committees. Everywhere I turned professionals were complaining bitterly about the impact of HMOs and managed care organizations (MCO’s). Their fees had been severely slashed, they were sometimes closed out of participating in provider panels, these organizations were intrusive insofar as the actually delivery of service, and administrative burdens were escalating. I tired of all of the complaining and decided to contemplate a practice model that would work in this altered health care environment. After visiting a number of states where HMOs and MCOs had actually taken hold earlier than they had in Massachusetts, I decided to create a Management Services Organization (MSO) for professionals known as The Practice Sentry, LLC (one of the very first LLCs in Massachusetts), and a Professional Corporation, Behavioral Solutions, P.C. that would work in tandem with the MSO. I also wanted to create a spirit of cooperation with HMOs and MCOs, rather than the mutual demonization that had developed between the payer and provider communities. To that end, I created an Advisory Council comprised of representatives of all stakeholders in the mental health community. It was quite a challenge to get credible representatives from stakeholder organizations to sit collaboratively with one another. The composition and collaborative process of this Advisory Council was so innovative that The Practice Sentry, LLC was awarded the Innovation in Behavioral Healthcare Award. An important organizational principal of the system I created was to make it desirable for HMOs and MCOs to work with us, and to make it easy for providers to work with these payer groups. To these ends we developed a system of highly vetted, independently licensed clinicians that delivered services from multiple locations, but access to any location could be had by calling one central number. Given the number of clinicians we credentialed, the variety of locations, and the breadth of services we provided we made it very easy for HMOs, MCOs and their subscribers to be placed in treatment quickly. We also provided our clinicians with all of the necessary management support so they had almost no paperwork other than maintaining their clinical records. All parties benefited and we have thrived now for over 20 years.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest struggle was getting all parties to believe in this new service model. It took about four years to make that happen on a widespread basis.
Please tell us about Behavioral Solutions and The Practice Sentry.
We provide private, outpatient mental health services to individuals, couples and families from about age 8 years through the lifespan. We treat almost all presenting problems, with the exception of eating disorders and serious and persistent mental illness. We are known for the high level of competency of our clinicians, and the ability to place persons with a suitable clinician quickly, obviating the common problem experienced by many and recently documented in the Boston Globe, of patients making enumerable calls (many of which go completely unanswered) before they can get an appointment. I have been told by two major MCOs that we are their “go-to” practice. For clinicians, we are known for making private practice easy from an administrative point of view, and keeping their caseloads full.
For 15 of the past 20+ years, we have also become quite known for the range of Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services we provide. We contract with about a dozen EAP and provide evaluation and placement services for employees. We deliver wellness seminars in the workplace. And we provide crisis interventions services. For example, we provided debriefing experiences (1) at Ground Zero and locally following the tragedy of 911, (2) locally following the marathon bombing, (3) countless interventions in workplaces that have experienced major disruptions from violence, deaths and layoffs, and (4) we even provided a team for over a month to help a major hospital with nurse reentry following a very contentious nurses strike.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Playing pick-up sports in the local sand lot.
Contact Info:
- Address: 55 Cambridge Street, Suite 201
- Website: www.behavioralsolutionspc.com
- Phone: 7812213180 ext. 200 for new referrals
- Email: bmaloof@behavioralsolutionspc.com
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