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Tara Balija, MD
Surgery, Breast Cancer - Surgery
About Me
Tara Balija, MD, FACS, is a board-certified fellowship-trained breast surgical oncologist. She is a strong proponent of compassionate and equitable healthcare and believes in the importance of partnering with her patients to optimize their outcomes. While she is a breast conserving surgery advocate who performs oncoplastic techniques to minimize scarring for lumpectomies, she is also well versed in nipple-sparing mastectomies and skin sparing mastectomies in eligible patients. With over 10 years of experience, Dr. Balija sees patients with a wide breadth of breast disease, including patients who need high risk breast cancer screening due to a family history of breast cancer or atypia, abnormal breast imaging and exams, and breast cancer.
Dr. Balija graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology. She received her MD with a Distinction in Research from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (now the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai). She completed General Surgery residency at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and fellowship training in Breast Surgical Oncology at the Rutgers-Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
As Assistant Professor of Surgery, she has been involved with educating the next generation of medical students and residents at medical schools in New York and New Jersey. Throughout her career, Dr. Balija has continued to contribute to the body of knowledge in breast surgery through various research studies and has served as a site principal investigator for multi-institutional clinical trials including:
- COMET Trial: Comparing an Operation to Monitoring, with or without Endocrine Therapy for low-risk DCIS
- A011202: A Randomized Phase III Trial Comparing Axillary Lymph Node Dissection to Axillary Radiation in Breast Cancer Patients (cT1-3 N1) Who Have Positive Sentinel Lymph Node Disease After Receiving Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy
- DCIS: RECAST Trial: Ductal Carcinoma In Situ: Re-Evaluating Conditions for Active Surveillance Suitability as Treatment
Dr. Balija sees patients at Mount Sinai West.
Language
English
Position
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR | Surgery
Hospital Affiliations
- Mount Sinai Morningside
- Mount Sinai Beth Israel
- Mount Sinai Brooklyn
- Mount Sinai Queens
- The Mount Sinai Hospital
- Mount Sinai West
Clinical Focus
- Abnormal Breast Ultrasound
- Breast Biopsy
- Breast Cancer
- Breast Cancer Checkup
- Breast Cancer Surgery
- Breast Cyst
- Breast Microsurgery
- Breast Problems
- Breast Surgery
- Breast Surgery Second Opinion
- Breast Surgical Biopsy
- Cancer Screening
- Cancer Treatment
- Enlarged Lymph Nodes
- Fine Needle Biopsy
- Lump(s) in Breast
- Lumpectomy
- Lymph Node Biopsy
- Mastectomy
- Surgery Second Opinion
Video
Education
MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Internship, Surgery (General Surgery)
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Residency, Surgery (General Surgery)
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Fellowship, Surgical Oncology
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
Certifications
American Board of Surgery
Insurance Information
Accepted insurance may vary by the doctor’s office location. Please contact the office directly to obtain the most up-to-date insurance information.
- 1199 SEIU
- AETNA - Commercial
- AETNA - Medicare
- Affinity Medicaid-Medicare-Essential Exchange
- Amidacare Medicaid
- CIGNA Healthcare
- Centivo
- Elderplan
- EmblemHealth - GHI-PPO
- EmblemHealth - HIP
- EmblemHealth - HIP-Medicaid
- EmblemHealth - HIP-Medicare
- Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield - Commercial/Exchange
- Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield - HealthPlus Medicaid
- Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield - Medicare
- Fidelis Health Care
- HealthFirst Medicaid
- HealthFirst Medicare
- Horizon NJ
- Magnacare-Health Care
- Medicare - NJ
- Medicare - NY
- Metroplus
- Multiplan PHCS
- NJ Medicaid
- NY Medicaid
- Oscar
- Oxford - Freedom and Liberty
- Partners Health Plan
- Senior Whole Health
- United Health Care - Commercial
- United Health Care - Empire Plan
- United Health Care - Oxford Care
- United Health Care - Top Tier
- VNSNY Choice Medicare
- VNSNY Select Health Medicaid
- VillageCareMax
- WellCare Health Plan
Physicians who provide services at hospitals and facilities in the Mount Sinai Health System might not participate in the same health plans as those Mount Sinai hospitals and facilities (even if the physicians are employed or contracted by those hospitals or facilities).
Information regarding insurance participation and billing by this physician may be found on this page, and can also be obtained by contacting this provider directly. Because physicians insurance participation can change, the insurance information on this page may not always be up-to-date. Please contact this physician directly to obtain the most up-to-date insurance information.
Insurance and health plan networks that the various Mount Sinai Health System hospitals and facilities participate in can be found on the Mount Sinai Health System website.
Industry Relationships
Physicians and scientists on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai often interact with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology companies, and other outside entities to improve patient care, develop new therapies and achieve scientific breakthroughs. In order to promote an ethical and transparent environment for conducting research, providing clinical care and teaching, Mount Sinai requires that salaried faculty inform the School of their outside financial relationships.
Dr. Balija has not yet completed reporting of Industry relationships.
Mount Sinai’s faculty policies relating to faculty collaboration with industry are posted on our website. Patients may wish to ask their physician about the activities they perform for companies.