Aug 30, 2011

InteCare, Hosting Customer, Casts its Cares on The Small Business Authority

[caption id="attachment_393" align="alignright" width="469" caption="InteCare Inc."]

[/caption] Rebecca Sigafus speaks with a Midwestern authenticity that makes you want to tell her your problems. She’s in the right field. Sigafus began her behavioral-health career as a music therapist, where she spent 10 years before returning to school for her master’s degree in social work. “I loved being a music therapist,” Sigafus said. When she was attaining her master's degree, she was surprised by how much she enjoyed learning the management and administration side of behavioral health. Nowadays, Sigafus no longer sees clients. She works as the chief operating officer and director of quality improvement for InteCare Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides administrative and managed-care services for behavioral-health and addiction-treatment organizations in Indiana and bordering states. “Bottom line—we provide the network and all the administrative services that go with it,” Sigafus said. “What we do is we provide credentialing of the providers in our network. We have psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, licensed clinical social workers … it’s a broad array of people who work for behavioral health care and addiction services. We credential those folks and we credential organizations.” “Since 2008, which is when we started [getting involved with] managed Medicaid, when we really got going with managed Medicaid, we have credentialed approximately 630 individuals and 52 organizations,” Sigafus said. InteCare has also credentialed more than 216 group practices. InteCare was incorporated in 1998. It was founded by four community mental health centers in central Indiana. Its clients are mainly in the public sector, including the state of Indiana and managed Medicaid programs. InteCare also maintains a network of care providers who are qualified and verified to provide behavioral-health services. “That’s the database that [The Small Business Authority] hosts,” Sigafus said. “In addition to credentialing, we collect quite a bit of info for providers to provide to our clients for the managed Medicaid [program] … and that number is approximately 3,040 unduplicated providers.” InteCare has been a hosting customer with The Small Business Authority since December 2008. When the company sought a partner that was reasonable, flexible, and fast, it found what it needed at The Small Business Authority. “[The Small Business Authority] clearly had the experience and expertise that we were looking for,” Sigafus said in a previous interview. “We actually had previous experience with [The Small Business Authority] in setting up a system on a shared server, which was quickly and successfully implemented. When considering other options, they were the best fit for us, and the most cost-effective.”