A concierge therapy benefit for California surgical groups.
For practice administrators at private orthopedic, plastic, and cardiothoracic groups: a confidential therapy benefit for your surgeon partners, with matched clinicians, extended sessions, and clean per-surgeon pricing that fits a group of 3 to 25.
via telehealth
licensed clinicians
and 3 hours
out-of-network
A concierge clinical channel for the partners of a California surgical group.
This page is for practice administrators and managing partners at private surgical groups, orthopedic, plastic, cardiothoracic, who want to offer their surgeon partners a real therapy benefit without standing up an HR apparatus to run it. If that is you, the rest of this page is the briefing document.
CEREVITY operates as a clinical network with direct relationships between the network, the clinicians, and the contracting group. There is no third-party broker layer. Surgeons are matched, not first-served. Scheduling and intake run through CEREVITY infrastructure. Care is private-pay, out-of-network, and structurally separate from anything the group administers internally.
Our clinicians are independent California-licensed professionals, and many have treated surgeons before. For a group of 3 to 25 partners, the benefit is designed to be light to administer: a clean per-surgeon structure, eligibility handled simply, and no requirement that the group build internal infrastructure around it. CEREVITY exists because private groups rarely have the scale to run a credible surgeon-tier wellness program on their own, and the partners deserve one anyway.
A private group has the surgeons but not the wellness infrastructure of a large system.
Surgeons in a private group carry the same clinical load as their hospital-employed peers, often with thinner support around them. The group has every reason to offer a real channel and rarely the scale to build one internally.
Surgeons present with a recognizable clinical profile: high-functioning anxiety maintained at significant personal cost, the cumulative weight of adverse outcomes, decision density across long cases, and the isolation of being the partner others rely on. In a small group, those pressures are compounded by the fact that the surgeons are also the owners, carrying the practice's economics alongside its clinical risk.
The barrier to seeking help is not access; it is consequence and proximity. In a small group, the worry that a partner or the administrator might learn you are in care is acute, because the group is small enough that visibility feels likely. A channel structurally separate from the group, with no group visibility into who has engaged, removes that barrier, which is the point of having one.
What changes when the channel is built around this profile and sized for a group: matched California-licensed clinicians with experience treating surgeons, session formats long enough to do depth work, scheduling that respects operative calendars, a confidentiality posture that gives the group no visibility into care, and per-surgeon pricing that a 3-to-25-partner group can administer without overhead.
What CEREVITY clinicians actually treat in a surgical group.
The clinical scope is built around the presenting profile of practicing surgeons who are also group owners, not the workforce-wide profile an EAP is built for.
Adverse outcomes and complications
A complication or a bad outcome carries a clinical aftermath that group culture rarely makes room for. The second-victim pattern is real and treatable, and in a small group there is often no one safe to process it with.
High-functioning anxiety
Performance maintained at cost. The case goes well, the partners are satisfied, and the cost is invisible until it is not. Common across junior and senior partners alike.
Owner-operator pressure
Surgeon partners carry the practice's economics on top of its clinical risk. Referral relationships, payor mix, and the group's financial health become their own source of chronic stress when they stop being seasonal.
Litigation and malpractice stress
A malpractice claim can run for years and produces a stress syndrome with symptoms resembling PTSD, independent of the eventual finding. Plastic and orthopedic practices carry particular exposure.
Partnership and equity dynamics
Buy-ins, buy-outs, partner disputes, and succession in a small group are clinical events as much as business events. The isolation of being unable to discuss them openly is itself treatable.
Decision and judgment fatigue
Long cases compress hundreds of consequential decisions into hours, and then the business decisions begin. The cumulative cost eventually shows up, and not always in the obvious places.
Identity fusion with the practice
Years of being defined by the practice means separating self from role becomes its own clinical project, particularly approaching a sale, a wind-down, or the loss of operative capacity.
Substance use as a coping pattern
Alcohol and other substances often enter as a way to decompress from surgical intensity. CEREVITY treats this as a clinical issue early, and refers to the appropriate monitoring channel where impairment-level concerns arise.
Three session formats, each chosen for the work.
Most benefits offer one session length. CEREVITY offers three, because different kinds of clinical work need different amounts of time. The choice is made between the clinician and the surgeon, not by what a payor will reimburse.
The steady cadence of ongoing therapy. Most clients spend most of their care in this format.
For work that needs more room than a standard hour. Focused work on a specific transition or decision.
For work that needs uninterrupted time to reach resolution within a single session rather than broken across weeks.
Because CEREVITY operates outside the insurance reimbursement model, session length is set by the clinical work, not by what a payor will reimburse. That is the structural reason all three formats, the 50-minute, the 90-minute, and the 3-hour, can exist on the same network.
Ready to scope a group briefing?
Briefings are scoped to your group. We respond personally within 48 business hours with proposed times, the per-surgeon structure for a group your size, and any prepared materials relevant to the benefit you are evaluating.
Request a briefingHow a surgeon gets matched, in five steps.
Matched, not first-served. Here is the process that produces the match for a surgeon partner.
The eligible individual submits a confidential intake form covering presenting issues, modality preference, professional context, and scheduling parameters. The form is operated by CEREVITY, not by a broker.
Intake is reviewed by CEREVITY's clinical leadership against the network's active capacity, current licensure footprint, and modality availability. This is the step that does not exist in an EAP.
A specific clinician in the network is matched to the surgeon based on the review. The surgeon receives the match with the clinician's profile, modality, and credentials, plus a direct online scheduling link.
The surgeon schedules directly through CEREVITY infrastructure. No phone handoff. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of the match.
Care continues with the matched clinician on the cadence the clinical work requires, in 50-minute, 90-minute, or 3-hour sessions, without an employer-imposed cap.
Capability comparison for California Surgical Groups.
A vendor evaluation framework on the dimensions that matter when scoping a leadership-tier offering for surgeons. Both models have a place. They are designed for different populations.
| Dimension | Typical EAP | Executive-tier point solution | CEREVITY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network model | Broker layer between group and roster of contractors; scales well to workforce-wide coverage | Single-vendor platform with W-2 or contracted clinician pool | Independent clinical network with direct relationships, no broker layer |
| Clinician assignment | First contractor to reply with availability; optimized for speed-to-first-session | Algorithmic matching on intake-form inputs | Clinical review of intake by network leadership against active capacity |
| Intake and scheduling | Phone handoff to clinician's line; verbal scheduling on callback | App-based intake; in-app scheduling | Network-operated intake; direct online scheduling, no phone handoff |
| Session formats | Standard 50-minute; capped session counts per issue | Standard 45 to 50-minute sessions | 50-minute, 90-minute, and 3-hour formats; no employer-imposed cap |
| Clinical scope | Acute, broadly applicable workforce concerns; intentionally generalist | Workforce-wide therapy and coaching, with executive tier branded on top | Built around presenting issues specific to California Surgical Groups |
| Modality fit | Generalist talk therapy; modality-agnostic roster | Generalist therapy; some specialty referral | CBT, DBT, and psychodynamic clinicians, matched to presenting issue and modality preference at intake |
| Reach | National via roster density; varies by region | National via telehealth, with roster density variation | Nationwide via telehealth across all 50 states |
| Payment model | Group-sponsored; covered through benefits plan | Per-employee-per-month seat pricing | Private-pay; out-of-network; structured through partnership agreement |
| Group visibility | Aggregate utilization reporting; broker-mediated | Vendor dashboards with engagement and utilization metrics | Administrative reporting only; no clinical content visible |
| Where each model fits | Workforce-wide acute support | Mid-tier ongoing care with executive add-on | California Surgical Groups, end-to-end |
What the group sees, and what the group does not.
For a surgeon-tier-tier mental health channel to function, the participating surgeon has to trust that engaging with it does not create group visibility into their care. CEREVITY is designed around that requirement.
- Confirmation that contracted services were provided to eligible individuals.
- Aggregate utilization at the partnership level, where contractually appropriate.
- Invoicing and eligibility reconciliation.
- Nothing tied to a specific named surgeon's clinical content.
- Whether a specific named surgeon has scheduled, attended, or engaged with care.
- What clinical issues are being addressed, or which clinician is assigned.
- Session notes, treatment plans, diagnostic information, or progress data.
- Any attendance detail at the individual level.
Clinicians in the network are independent licensed professionals operating under their own licensure and the confidentiality and privacy obligations that attach to it. Protected health information is held within the clinical infrastructure and is not transmitted to the partner organization, and the agreements governing it are defined in writing before the partnership goes live.
Clinical records, session content, and individual engagement data sit inside the clinical platform and are not shared with the partner organization. The administrative layer is structurally separate from the clinical layer.
Eligibility lists are maintained on the partner side and confirmed against the network side at the point of intake. Administering eligibility does not require the partner to receive clinical information back.
A Business Associate Agreement is executed where the partnership structure requires it. The partnership agreement defines the administrative reporting scope explicitly, in writing, before the partnership goes live.
What the first 30 days look like.
The hardest part of a surgeon-tier-tier partnership is not the contract. It is the period between signature and the first surgeon in care. Here is how CEREVITY runs that period.
A 60-minute kickoff with your team and CEREVITY's partnership lead. We confirm the partnership shape, the eligibility model, the administrative reporting scope, and the internal owner on your side. The Business Associate Agreement, where applicable, is executed in this window.
Your team provides the eligible-individual list in the format your administrative systems support. CEREVITY confirms it against the network side and establishes the verification path that runs at the point of intake. No clinical data flows backward; only eligibility confirmation flows forward.
CEREVITY provides a confidential, surgeon-tier-appropriate internal comms template explaining the benefit, the privacy posture, and how to access intake. Your team adapts it to your voice. The communication is designed to be received without stigma.
Eligible individuals begin intake on their own cadence. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of each intake. By day 30, the partnership is operational and your internal owner has a quarterly review cadence with the CEREVITY partnership lead.
The business case for the practice administrator.
Three axes a managing partner or administrator can defend to the partnership. The numbers will vary by group; the structural argument does not.
Partner retention is a per-departure problem at the worst possible scale.
In a group of a handful of surgeons, losing one partner is not a percentage of the workforce, it is a structural shock to case volume, call coverage, and the economics every remaining partner depends on. A clinical channel built for surgeon realities pays for itself across a single prevented departure.
Partner capacity is the group's entire product.
A small group has no bench. A partner running below capacity is a direct hit to the group's case volume and to the load every other partner carries. Recovery of clinical capacity is felt immediately and across the whole group.
Recruiting and partner attraction.
Recruiting a surgeon into a private group is competitive and expensive. A named, confidential, surgeon-tier mental health benefit is a differentiating signal when a candidate is choosing between your group and a larger system that already offers wellness infrastructure.
Questions surgeons and their teams ask first.
The benefit is structured on a per-surgeon basis, which keeps administration simple for a group of 3 to 25 and lets you scale eligibility as partners join or leave. The exact figure depends on the shape of the engagement, the size of the partner group, and which session formats you want available. The briefing call is where we identify the right structure, and the price falls out of that, not the other way around.
No. Administrative reporting only. The group receives confirmation that contracted services were provided to eligible individuals and aggregate utilization where contractually appropriate. No partner and no administrator sees whether a specific named surgeon has scheduled, attended, or engaged, what clinical issues are being addressed, or which clinician is assigned. This is contractually scoped before the partnership goes live, and it matters more in a small group, not less.
Yes. Clinicians serving your group are independently licensed in California and credentialed through CEREVITY's process. Many have direct experience treating surgeons and understand operating-room culture and the dynamics of a private practice. Matching takes specialty and clinical fit into account.
Clinicians in the CEREVITY network operate under their own licensure and the confidentiality and privacy obligations that attach to it. The handling of any protected health information, and the specific agreements that govern it including any Business Associate Agreement, are defined in writing in the partnership agreement before the partnership goes live, scoped to your group's structure. Whether a given agreement applies is a legal determination made with your counsel.
Clinicians in the CEREVITY network are bound by their licensure-specific mandatory reporting obligations, including duties around danger to self or others and suspected abuse. CEREVITY is not a reporting workaround and does not represent itself as one. Where impairment-level concerns arise that point toward a physician health program or board involvement, that remains the appropriate channel.
No. CEREVITY is private-pay and out-of-network by design, funded by the group. The structure is intentional: it is the only way to deliver the clinical scope, session formats, and confidentiality posture surgeons require.
First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of intake, depending on modality requirements and scheduling parameters.
Through a briefing call. Use the form below or email [email protected] directly. Briefings are scoped to your group; we respond personally within 48 business hours.
Tell us about your group. We respond within 48 business hours.
Briefings are scoped to your group. Share a few details below, including roughly how many surgeon partners you have, and we will respond personally with proposed times, the per-surgeon structure, and any prepared materials relevant to the benefit you are evaluating.
The structural argument on this page is based on the firsthand experience of CEREVITY clinicians who have served on EAP panels, combined with widely-published industry estimates of EAP utilization and California Surgical Groups-specific data where cited. Specific contractual scopes, including the administrative reporting boundary and the BAA structure, are confirmed in writing in the partnership agreement before any partnership goes live.
