Botulinum Toxin Insurance Authorizations

good medical treatment, please email or call me at the address/phone number above so we can add the doctor to our reference database.

Upcoming Webinar: Many blepharospasm patients call the BEBRF office for advice in dealing with their blepharospasm and its treatment. Angel and I have put together a program called How to Get the Most Out of Your Injections. We will be presenting this Webinar via Zoom on Friday, August 26, 2022 at 1:00 central time. Register for the Webinar through the BEBRF website or Facebook page.

BEBRF will attend the American Academy of Optometry in San Diego, CA, October 26-29, 2022. The BEBRF presence is part of the on-going effort to familiarize relevant health-care providers with blepharospasm and its related disorders so that patients can get earlier diagnoses and earlier treatment.

Reminder: all of the past BEBRF Webinars are available online at the BEBRF Website under the Events tab, and all the Symposium presentations all the way back to 2013 are also available under the About Blepharospasm tab. BEBRF would once again like to thank Office Manager Angel Roberts for designing our new Website, and offer her our congratulations on her upcoming nuptials and move to Missouri. We will miss her.

Are you or your doctor’s office finding it difficult to get authorization for your botulinum toxin injections? If so, you are not alone.

BEBRF has been working with patients and doctor’s offices around the country to help facilitate botulinum toxin authorizations and approvals from insurance companies and Medicare. Often the problem is solved by using the correct ‘coding’ in the paperwork filed with the insurance company.

If you encounter these problems, please call Charlene Hudgins, BEBRF Executive Director, at 409-832-0788, and she will coordinate with the pharmaceutical company patient assistance team to help your doctor expedite your authorization with your insurance issues. Or if you prefer, you can contact her at charlene@blepharospasm.org.

As a reminder, BEBRF has also put together a packet of information that your doctor can use to appeal to your insurance company for more frequent botulinum toxin injections if you need them.

Don’t let these authorizations come between you and your treatments! BEBRF is here to help you.

BEBRF BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Heidi Coggeshall, President/Treasurer* Tishana Cundiff, Vice President Education & Support* Peter Bakalor, Vice President- Development* Jane Boyd, MD, Vice President- Physician Outreach* Charlene Hudgins, Executive Director/Secretary Cynthia Clark* Robert Campbell, PhD* Jonathan Healy Carlas Powell* Bryan Renehan*

EX OFFICIO

Brian Berman, MD, Advisor

*Patients

MEDICAL ADVISORY BOARD

Brian Berman, MD, Chair, Richmond, VA Mark Hallett, MD, Bethesda, MD Andrew Harrison, MD, Minneapolis, MN Joseph Jankovic, MD, Houston, TX Hyder A. “Buz” Jinnah, MD, PhD, Atlanta, GA Laurie Ozelius, PhD, Boston, MA Sarah Pirio Richardson, MD, Albuquerque, NM Charles Soparkar, MD, PhD, Houston, TX Mark Stacy, MD, Greenville, NC Julie Woodward, MD, Durham, NC

DISTRICT DIRECTORS & EMAIL

Bryan Renehan, Eastern

CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, MA, MD,

ME, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, PR,

RI, SC, VT, VA, WV dir-e@blepharospasm.org Tishana Cundiff, Central

AL, AR, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA,

MI, MN, MS, MO, ND, OH, SD,

TN, TX, WI dir-c@blepharospasm.org Cynthia Clark, Western

AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT,

NE, NV, NM, OK, OR, UT,

WA, WY dir-w@blepharospasm.org

2016 BEBRF Denver Symposium Faculty with Dr. Berman on the left and Dr. Hallett 3rd from left

Disorders Center at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Richmond, VA. Dr. Berman earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of New Mexico followed by a master’s degree in medical physics from the University of Colorado. He went on to receive his medical education at the University of Colorado and completed neurology residency training at the University of California at San Francisco. After residency, he completed a post-doctoral clinical research fellowship with Dr. Hallett at the Human Motor Control Section of the NIH. He has received numerous scholarship awards during his academic career, and he is an active member in professional organizations including the Movement Disorder Society and American Academy of Neurology.

Prior to coming to VCU, Dr. Berman was on faculty at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus for a decade and served as the Associate Director of Research at their Movement Disorders Center. He joined the BEBRF MAB in 2014 and served as the Program Director of the 2016 BEBRF Symposium in Denver. He has given dozens of extramural lectures, presentations, and visiting professorships on the local, national, and international stage. In addition, he has mentored hundreds of students and trainees over the years, many of whom have gone on to their own neurological and/or movement disorder careers.

Dr. Berman’s research interests include using advanced brain imaging methods and non-invasive neurostimulation strategies to study the changes to brain structure and function caused by dystonia and Parkinson’s disease. By elucidating neuroimaging biomarkers, he hopes to equip future physicians with tools to make better and earlier diagnoses. He has received numerous research grants as a Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, and Site Investigator from a variety of sources including the BEBRF, Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, the NIH, and Dystonia Coalition, and has authored or co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed articles and scientific abstracts.

BEBRF would like to thank Dr. Hallett for all of his years of dedicated service that has surely set the course for much of the world’s research done on blepharospasm and its related disorders. BEBRF also looks forward to and welcomes Dr. Berman as chair of the MAB – research is the key to our treatment and cure.