License issues marked as niche

By Jay Fitzgerald
Monday, October 4, 2004

Three Boston attorneys hope they've found a gold mine within the tangle of regulatory red tape professionals face.

The lawyers - one specializing in professional services, another a former counsel at the state Division of Professional Licensure and the third a former assistant attorney general - recently started a compliance and education firm designed to keep professionals out of regulatory trouble. Or get them back into good grace with regulators if they're ever disciplined.

Based on a business model used in New York for construction contractors, Affiliated Monitors Inc. is hoping to find a nonlegal niche for physicians, psychiatrists, accountants, government contractors, securities professionals and anyone else dependent on a license to work.

"We think there's a need out there,'' said Vincent DiCianni, a lawyer who saw professionals struggling with compliance needs when he represented them before various licensing boards.

Industry officials are intrigued with the business idea - though not totally sold on whether it will work in the long run.

"It's a good entrepreneurial model that's fairly unique,'' said Linda Grasso, general counsel for the state Division of Professional Licensure, which oversees 29 boards licensing professionals ranging from engineers to chiropractors to hairdressers.

But Dr. John Fromson, vice president for medical affairs at the Massachusetts Medical Society, said that while the idea is good in concept and perhaps applicable to some industries, many nonprofit professional groups already provide similar regulatory compliance and education services.

The Medical Society, for instance, has extensive education programs for doctors - as well as mentoring and other services if physicians land in trouble, whether for bookkeeping, clinical or personal problems.

"It seems to me in health care these functions are already provided by professional groups,'' he said.

But DiCianni said there is a niche - and a demand.

Affiliated Monitors has about 10 clients so far, including three chiropractors, an optometrist and a physician, among others.

The firm's services aren't cheap.

The company's pretrouble compliance program - a "soup-to-nuts audit'' of a professional's office needs, staff, and other mandated services - can cost between $3,000 and $5,000, DiCianni said.

The monitoring service - used to make sure professionals abide by settlement agreements made with boards - can cost from $100 to $600 an hour.

Many boards require disciplined workers to find professional monitors to help bring them into compliance with laws.

But DiCianni said his company is establishing a network of easy-to-find paid professionals to act as consultants for monitoring services.

Affiliated Monitors also provides education programs for professionals.

Lawyers who represent clients at board hearings won't be cut out of the loop, DiCianni said.

Affiliated Monitors' services come before and after board action, he said.

Affiliated Monitors is concentrating on white-collar professions but eyeing other fields, from people in the liquor business to plumbers, both of which require licenses of some sort.

"This is an idea I've had for a while now,'' DiCianni said of creating Affiliated Monitors.

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