Speaker's Profile

Dr. Harris is Senior Medical Director for Mental Health at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and sees psychiatry patients in a part-time outpatient clinical practice.He is a board-certified adult Psychiatrist with a master’s in public health and over 30 years of experience in integrated primary care, home care and office-based practice. He has been an advocate for mental health parity and coverage at both the federal and state levels since residency. He served most recently on the Massachusetts Legislative Special Commission on Medical Necessity for Behavioral Health Treatment. He is Past President of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society and Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He serves as a Panel Member in the American Medical Association’s Relative Value Update Committee. He is past Chair of the Committee on RBRVS, Coding and Reimbursement of the American Psychiatric Association and serves on the APA’s Workgroup on Measurement-Based Care. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Committee on the Quality of Medical Practice and past Chair of the MMS’s Committee on Interspecialty. Dr. Harris has worked at BCBSMA since 2016 and has been the clinical lead for mental health strategy since 2021, striving to make BCBSMA the “best health plan for mental health”.