To pass legislation ensuring that Medicaid will cover laser surgery for pregnant mothers without private insurance.

One appalling situation in this country right now is that Medicaid will not cover out of state laser surgery. Insurance companies are covering the surgery out of state but Medicaid is not. Thousands of babies are being denied a chance at life because of this. No parent should ever be denied. Laser surgery is not available in every state, and if it was, the training of the doctors might be insufficient to best care for the babies. Parents should be able to go whereever they need for the most qualified doctor.

We have been in contact with a Congressman in Ohio who is willing to help us congregate and make a stand on Capital Hill. What we need now are parents willing to share their stories of how they were denied out of state laser surgery because they were on Medicaid.

To pass legislation making the standard of care for pregnancies with monochorionic placentas to include weekly ultrasounds from 16 weeks through delivery.

We have been advocating this for years now, but many doctors do not recognize this as standard of care. Too often, parents never get from their OB doctor to the high-risk doctor for detailed ultrasounds that they need. Also, even when they do get to a perinatologist, some of these doctors still are not seeing the mothers frequently. Mothers are still going two, three and even four or more weeks in between their ultrasounds. Two weeks is too long. It has to be weekly, if not more to save these babies. A change in the standard of care will save lives all by itself! How can we not fight for this? We have to come together to put major pressure on The American Medical Association as well as Congress to pass this legislation, The Matthew and Steven Bill.

We also need families whose babies suffered because they did not get frequent ultrasounds. Write down your story, send it to us with your name, address, and telephone number. This is going to take some coordination, which is why it is under the subject of project! But, working together, we can make this happen. Bring your talents to the table.

SEEK CPT CODES

Seek CPT codes from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American College of OB/GYN's (ACOG) for the various cutting edge TTTS treatments such as laser therapy.

Part of the problem with laser surgery is that it has not been assigned a CPT code. Insurance companies learn this and immediately deem it experimental. Then, the parents have to fight the company. Sometimes it is easy, sometimes it is not. With the assignment of this code, no one is ever denied again. It is crucial that we do not let another day go by letting political doctors deny parents the ability to save their babies. There is no need for studies to determine the validity of laser surgery. These studies are only keeping the surgery in the experimental category longer.

Ideas to make these changes are welcomed and being organized now. Again, bring your talents to the table.