NY Psychologist, Howard Rombom, Ph.D., founded Behavioral Medicine Associates (BMA) in 1985. BMA provides specialized psychological services including evaluation, treatment, cognitive rehabilitation and pain management to injured workers through the NY State Workers’ Compensation Program. BMA also provides these services to patients in NY with no-fault insurance.
Behavioral Medicine Associates’ approach to behavioral treatment is unique, cost effective and a departure from traditional psychology practice. The vast majority of behavioral care provided in this country is performed in private psychology offices, detached from the patient’s health care. Treatment is fragmented, isolated, and poorly received by the majority of the population as well as by the medical establishment and by insurance carriers.
The key to BMA’s success in developing a patient base has been to establish offices in medical facilities. BMA is unique because we provide psychological care to patients for specific medical problems at the offices of their treating physicians. This arrangement places BMA in a position to attract patients and to strengthen relationships with the medical community. BMA employs “on-site” New York State licensed psychologists and social workers. Being “on-site” maximizes patient compliance. In addition, the behavioral care is viewed as part of the routine medical treatment, which helps to avoid the stigma so often attached to these services.
Integrating psychology into an established medical setting enables psychology to gain acceptance, recognition and “standing” in the eyes of patients. The benefits of psychological care, therefore, are available to a population not typically served by this discipline.
There are numerous medical problem areas that require patients to return to their treatment setting on a regular basis such as workplace injuries or illness, occupational disease, slips and falls, head injury, motor vehicle accidents, pedestrian accidents, chronic pain and pain disorders and effects of physical injuries and trauma. The problems for which these patients are being treated also have psychological or “behavioral” components which require treatment.
Some of these psychological problems include fear, stress, anxiety disorders (post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, and specific phobias) depression, sleep disorders, adjustment disorders, anger issues, psychosocial problems, relationship issues, caregiver distress, work problems, grief and loss, and difficulty coping with disability, injury and chronic pain.
The synergistic effect of traditional medical care/rehabilitation with behavioral treatment results in better outcomes, more significant gains, and ultimately, cost savings. This program of behavioral care is problem-specific; treatment is provided directly for the area of concern, and may include evaluation, therapy, education and support. The NY psychologist and social worker at BMA utilize recent advances in interactive technology to provide services and to reach patients who otherwise could not benefit from these services.
To treat these psychological or behavioral issues, the NY psychologists and therapists at Behavioral Medicine utilize techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), desensitization, exposure therapy, self-instructional training, relaxation training, meditation, mindfulness training and psychosocial support. These treatments provide skills and concrete behavioral techniques that can be used to regain behavioral and emotional functioning.
BMA is administered from a central office in Great Neck, NY. The central BMA staff include full-time administrators who handle all of the business issues involved in running the organization. Dr. Rombom functions as the clinical director and CEO, overseeing and directing the business operations as well as overseeing the behavioral care. All billing, report generation, collections, scheduling and management is centered at this NY location. This provides economy of staff, equipment and supplies. Information transmission by fax and computer allows for instantaneous response to any problem. Clinical files are kept at each office until the patient has been discharged from care, at which time they are transferred to the central office. This enables any and all requests for information, reports, etc. to be handled from one location.
