Updated AIM Musculoskeletal Program effective September 1, 2022 - site of care reviews

Effective September 1, 2022, AIM Specialty Health_® (AIM), a separate company, will expand the AIM Musculoskeletal Program to perform medical necessity review of the requested site of service for certain spine, joint and interventional pain procedures for Anthem fully-insured members, as outlined below. 

 

AIM will continue to manage the AIM Musculoskeletal program and level of care review. The AIM Level of Care Guideline for Musculoskeletal Surgery and Procedures is used for the level of care review. Prior authorization will now also be required for the clinical appropriateness of the site in which the procedure is performed (site of care). AIM will use the following Anthem Clinical UM Guideline: CG-SURG-52: Site of Care: Hospital-Based Ambulatory Surgical Procedures and Endoscopic Services. The clinical criteria to be used for these reviews can be found on Anthem’s Clinical UM Guidelines page.  Please note, this does not apply to procedures performed on an emergent basis.

 

A subset of the AIM Musculoskeletal Program codes will be reviewed for site of care. A complete list of CPT codes requiring prior authorization for the AIM Musculoskeletal site of care program is available on the AIM Musculoskeletal microsite. To determine if prior authorization for the AIM Musculoskeletal Program applies to an Anthem member on or after September 1, 2022, contact the Anthem Provider Services phone number on the back of the member’s ID card. AIM will recognize out of scope membership and will not require prior authorization for such members. Note: If a provider office attempts to use the Interactive Care Reviewer (ICR) tool on the Availity Portal to prior authorize an outpatient musculoskeletal case, ICR will produce a message referring the provider to AIM. (ICR cannot accept prior authorization requests for services administered by AIM.)

 

Members included in the new program

All fully-insured members currently participating in the AIM Musculoskeletal Program are included. This program will be offered to self-funded (ASO) groups that currently participate in the AIM Musculoskeletal Program to add to their members’ benefit package as of September 1, 2022. The following members are excluded: Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare supplement, MA GRS, and the Federal Employee Program® (FEP®). 

 

Prior authorization requirements

For services scheduled to begin on or after September 1, 2022, providers must contact AIM to obtain prior authorization. Ordering and servicing providers may begin contacting AIM on August 15, 2022. 

 

Providers may submit prior authorization requests to AIM in one of several ways:

• Access AIM’s ProviderPortal_lSM directly at www.providerportal.com. Online access is available 24/7 to process orders in real-time and is the fastest and most convenient way to request authorization.
• Access AIM via the Availity Web Portal at www.availity.com.

• Call the AIM Contact Center toll-free number at 866-714-1107, Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m.

 

Initiating a request on AIM’s ProviderPortal_SM and entering all the requested clinical questions will allow you to receive an immediate determination. The AIM Musculoskeletal Program microsite on the AIM provider portal helps you learn more and access helpful information and tools such as order entry checklists.

 

AIM musculoskeletal training webinars                                                                          

We invite you to take advantage of a free informational webinar that will introduce you to the program and the robust capabilities of the AIM ProviderPortal_SM.  Go to the AIM Musculoskeletal microsite to register for an upcoming webinar.  If you have previously registered for other services managed by AIM, there is no need to register again.

 

We value your participation in our network and look forward to working with you to help improve the health of our members.

 

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