Learning Collaborative for Birth Center Sustainability - Spring 2025

Course Registration Fee

• $800 AABC Birth Center Members
• $1855 Non-Members (includes AABC Birth Center Membership).

Save $50 for each attendee when you register 2+ people to attend. Contact AABC at 215.234.8068 or aabc@birthcenters.org to access multiple registration discount.

Data Report Fee

• $1200/AABC Birth Center Members

Upon completion of the course, participants will be eligible to purchase a data report customized to their state, which includes reimbursement details by key codes, insurances, and comparatives.

"This is the first time that I feel empowered to negotiate with insurance with quantifiable data specific to our state, detailed presentations that are editable and shareable, key negotiation tactics and approaches to take, real time strategy that is customizable to our birth center, and the amazing support of all the presenters who are open and willing to support us in these negotiations.

"The information shared in the course has been really invaluable to our birth center. Even though I've been in my role at the birth center since 2014, it provided me with much appreciated negotiation strategies and answers to the most commonly used pushback tactics from insurance companies. I was also able to easily and quickly tailor some of the resources provided in the course specific to my birth center, and State. The powerpoint presentation has been the star of the show when presenting to various insurance companies and the leadership at the Dept of Human Services about why birth centers need to be reimbursed at a sustainable level. Buying the dataset after the class was a no brainer for me, because it FINALLY gave me a glimpse into what the hospitals are getting reimbursed for similar services. I no longer feel like I'm negotiating in the dark.

"It has taken A LOT of meetings with so many people but change is finally happening! I'm so happy and proud to share that we were able to negotiate a newborn facility fee in an MCO contract - the first in our State. This opens the door for our sister Pennsylvania birth centers to negotiate a similar structured contract, as well as push commercial payers to get with the program!

"I honestly could not have done it without the ongoing support of the faculty and other participants of the LCBCS workshop. Even two years after taking the class, they stand in my corner, willing to help talk through a strategy and bounce ideas off of. You will not regret taking this class, it really has been a game changer for us in PA."

"This is potentially so transformative for the field of midwifery, for thousands of families, and for our country! I have a new found hope!"

“The PowerPoint shared in this course has been such a valuable tool that I’ve used to ‘plug and play’ to tailor to specific payers."

Faculty

Claudia Jennings

Claudia has worked with midwives at freestanding birth centers for 6 years and is proud to have held many operational roles, most recently as the administrative director of a birth center in MN. She provides behind the scenes support to ensure midwives can provide excellent clinical care and get paid appropriately for doing so! She is passionate about the value of the freestanding birth center model and how to demonstrate it, barriers to higher payment for birth centers and midwives, and ways to create operational and billing efficiency in the birth center model.

Erica Biesinger, MBA

Erica has been involved in the birth center community since 2014 when she joined the staff at The Midwife Center in Pittsburgh as the Finance and Operations Manager.  Since then, she's provided ongoing administrative support to the birth center including overseeing all financial aspects of the Center and helping to expand  both the facility and programs offered.  She is passionate about the independent, free-standing birth center model and the midwifery model of care. Her goal is to have that shine through in her administrative work, while improving the ongoing financial health of the birth center.