The BMA Method of Delivered Care

Behavioral Medicine Associates shares professional space with medical providers. Overhead is reduced; there is no need for a separate set of offices, phones, business machines or furnishings. All this is provided at the medical office, and included in the monthly lease charge. Similarly, benefits from cross-scheduling accrue, resulting in fewer missed or canceled appointments. Should a patient cancel, there is often another patient in the medical office who can be seen. Behavioral care is viewed as part of the routine medical treatment, avoiding the stigma so often attached to these services. The medical office staff function as liaisons, receptionists, etc., further reinforcing the idea that behavioral care and medical care are "seamless".

BMA’s method of providing care benefits from defined treatment parameters. The BMA method of delivering care reduces overhead, and allows for a large influx of new patients, reducing the need to "extend" the length of care. BMA helps patients feel better faster, encouraging greater acceptability and even more referrals.

Specialty Areas Benefit From Behavioral Care

There are numerous medical specialty areas which are amenable to behavioral care. Currently BMA provides services to a population of patients who have sustained traumas as a result of accidents and who are being treated for pain.

Additional medical problem areas include:

These medical problems specialties treat patients in facilities dedicated to these problems areas. Behavioral care will provide treatment to these patients directly related to these issues. BMA has developed treatment protocols to address these issues in a time-limited manner.

Reimbursement

Traditionally, psychological services were paid by a patient’s insurance carrier at a set rate or yearly limit. Since the proliferation of managed care plans, HMO's, and the like, the business of psychology has been radically altered. Third party payers have become "case managers", setting up a series of guidelines, regulations, and other obstacles to payment, and thereby, the delivery of care. BMA’s approach to behavioral care will take advantage of these guidelines by providing time-limited, problem specific care based upon empirically derived treatment protocols. Additionally, medical referrals will enable greater acceptance of care. BMA provides carriers with the information/material they demand, while demonstrating "limited" goals. The fear in paying for psychological care was its open-ended approach, a lack of goals and "fuzzy" methodology.

Medicare provides for behavioral care based upon a set fee schedule which varies by geographic region. Due to advances and improvements in electronic billing, payments are predictable.

BMA has extended its marketing efforts directly to insurance carriers, etc., to demonstrate the efficiency of our services and the cost-effectiveness of our program of specific care. It is expected that agreements with third party payers will be established to insure ease of payment.

Services for Patients with On-the-Job Injuries

BMA will mount a vigorous campaign to provide services to patients who have been injured on the job. Worker compensation claims represent a sizable expense, and are often extended due to issues of behavioral dysfunction. Programs of pain management, work hardening, and lifestyle adjustment enable patients to return to work sooner, with less disability. BMA seeks medical providers with whom to partner and also Worker Compensation Carriers who benefit from the BMA program of care.