Commitment to Educating Payers Grows in 2010
The AANEM’s advocacy reach extends to 32 states with the growth of the AANEM State Liaison Program. Seven new liaisons have been added for the 2010 program. The current liaisons have been advocating for EDX medicine in their states, with outreach efforts to educate claims adjusters and meet with payers.
“The AANEM’s relationship with payers has improved significantly in the last 3 years,” said Megan Fogelson, JD, MHA, Director of Health Policy. “Some members were already communicating with payers independently. With the State Liaison Program, we are working to harness those efforts for a common purpose and to have greater consistency in the messages we send to payers.”
The 2010 State Liaison training event took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 26-27. The program featured keynote speaker Dr. Stephen Parente, a professor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Parente has served as an advisor to the McCain campaign, co-owns a data mining firm, and is a frequent contributor to Minnesota Public Radio. He informed state liaisons about software used by payers to detect inappropriate care and fraudulent billing. With this insight, they can make informed recommendations to payers related to payment parameters and potential criteria for identifying claims fraud. The 2010 meeting encouraged greater engagement in problem solving, as liaisons developed possible solutions to issues facing EDX medicine.
2009 AANEM State Liaison Training Event
The AANEM expanded its advocacy reach to 26 states with the growth of the AANEM State Liaison Program. The 2009 program included 9 new physicians in addition to the 17 who attended last year’s program. The physicians are trained as liaisons to address practice-related issues in key states throughout the United States. According to Megan Fogelson, JD, MHA, AANEM Director of Health Policy, “This year’s program offered excellent training in educating payers and engaged participants in formulating the AANEM’s strategy for addressing fraud in the area of electrodiagnostic medicine and neuromuscular medicine.’’
Dr. Douglas Wayne of Virginia began the meeting with an important discussion on the physicians’ role in shaping Medicare coverage policies. Because of the large number of members identifying fraud in their states, this year the AANEM brought to the program two experts on medical fraud -- Mr. John Benson, Chief Operating Officer at Government Management Services, Inc., and Ms. Sharon Green, an assistant manager of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas’ Special Investigative Unit. Following the healthcare fraud speakers, the liaisons focused on learning the steps to build a relationship with a medical director, reviewing the AANEM resources useful in coverage policy development, role-playing a meeting with a medical director, and formulating their action plans.
According to Shirlyn Adkins, JD, Executive Director, “The State Liaison Program is unique in its focus on building relationships with insurers, and we hope the program continues to grow in the future.” The 2009 event took place in Dallas, Texas, on February 27 and 28.