Maria Montanaro is new behavioral health director
The new director of the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) has a track record of transformation, experience that should serve Maria Montanaro, well as the state tackles a public mental health system many say is in crisis.
Gov. Gina Raimondo’s choice to lead the agency that oversees long-term hospital care, mental health and psychiatric services, substance-abuse prevention and treatment and residential and day programs for people with developmental disabilities, started work Feb. 2. She had previously been chief executive officer of Magellan Behavioral Care of Iowa, where she managed more than $330 million in Medicaid services for 450,000 recipients for the state of Iowa.
“One of our priorities is fostering innovation in state government. It is widely known that there are several challenges facing BHDDH that are holding us back from providing families with the safe, quality care they deserve,” Raimondo said in a statement. “Maria has spent her career finding ways to improve services and outcomes for families. She will be an excellent addition to our health and human services team.”
Montanaro will be paid an annual salary of $126,582. She replaces Craig Stenning, who led the agency since 2008 and was not re-hired by the new Raimondo administration. Through a BHDDH spokesman, Montanaro declined multiple requests for interviews during her first week on the job.
Montanaro returns to Rhode Island after spending two and a half years leading Magellan’s care management corporation in Iowa where her accomplishments included directing the implementation of more than $100 million of new business in her first year of tenure. She also led the design and implementation of a statewide health home project aimed at the severely mentally ill for Iowa’s Medicaid program.
Montanaro had previously worked as a senior advisor for integrated health management services at Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Rhode Island. She was also chief executive officer of Thundermist Health Center from 1997 to 2011.
Montanaro has a Master of Social Work from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Rhode Island health care business leaders and mental health advocates welcomed Montanaro’s selection.
“Look no further than Maria’s transformation of Thundermist during her 14 year tenure as CEO,” said Thundermist Health Center President and CEO Chuck Jones. “She is a passionate, visionary leader with deep experience with the Rhode Island delivery system and the area of behavioral health. The state in general, and particularly those who face behavioral health challenges, are fortunate to have Maria take the helm of this important department.”
Mark Waggoner, senior vice president for Care Integration & Management at Blue Cross Blue Shield Rhode Island, said he looked forward to collaborating with Montanaro on initiatives that link behavioral health and primary care.
“She understands the critical importance of behavioral health as part of an integrated, cost-effective healthcare system for Rhode Islanders,” Waggoner said.
Mental Health Consumer Advocates of Rhode Island Executive Director James McNulty said Montanaro’s managed care experience makes her “an unconventional but perhaps inspired” choice to lead the state agency.
“It is pretty clear that managed care, in some form, is coming to Rhode Island,” McNulty said via email. “Managed behavioral health care holds out the prospect of reduced costs and better outcomes for the clients served.”
But when states bring in a managed care company to run their public behavioral health programs, McNulty added, those seeking quick fixes for fiscal woes are in for a reality check.
“Health care is incredibly complex and we are really just beginning to learn how public health and managed care work together and how they don’t work well together. Ms. Montanaro brings a formidable level of experience to the job,” McNulty said.
If the state goes in the direction of using managed care to manage cost and outcome in Medicaid, McNulty said BHDDH’s role would become more about planning and oversight. He said Montanaro has an opportunity to play a pivotal role to redesign the system to address the needs of people served by not only her own department but the Department of Children Youth and Families and the Department of Corrections.
“What I would hope is that Ms. Montanaro would include advocates and persons served in the planning process, something that is not really done in any meaningful way at present,” McNulty said.
BHDDH falls under the jurisdiction of the Executive Office of Health & Human Services. Raimondo picked Elizabeth Roberts, the former lieutenant governor, to head that agency.