Learning Collaborative for Birth Center Sustainability

Pre-Conference Workshop

DATE: Tuesday, November 5th - Thursday, November 7th
TIME: 6:00pm-8:30pm (Tues) / 8:30am-5:15pm (Wed) / 8:00am - 12:15pm (Thrs)
FACULTY: Rebeckah Orton, BS, RN, Desiree LeFave, CPM, LDM, and Laura Wiegand, MBA

The AABC Industry Relations Committee (IRC) has developed this learning collaborative to teach birth center members how to use regional price data to negotiate equitable contracts for birth center sustainability.

Building on the successes and lessons learned of member birth centers in Oregon and using the collective experience and expertise of the IRC, the Learning Collaborative will give members a blueprint on how to use the data to negotiate contracts in line with the birth center’s value. Participants will:

  • Review best practices for anti-trust compliance

  • Create relationships and unity with other birth centers to educate and garner support from stakeholders

  • Define sustainability as it pertains to YOUR birth center

  • Understand your value and the law

  • Receive tools for effective negotiations which can be customized for your birth center

  • Apply negotiating tactics and identify realistic timeframes

  • Learn to argue and win

  • Receive a data report with reimbursement in your state by key codes, insurances and compartives. The data report fee is additional and you will be invoiced for this fee.

All participants will be required to sign a Licensing Agreement for the data report.

Birth centers may find it beneficial to have two or more staff attend the learning collaborative. Save $50 for each attendee when you register 2+ people to attend.

REGISTRATION FEE:

  • Workshop Registration - $800 AABC Birth Center Members / $1855 Non-Members (includes Birth Center membership).

  • Data Report Fee - $1200/member birth center. Each organization will be invoiced separately for their data report. You must attend the class to receive your data report.

Faculty

Rebeckah Orton, BS, RN
Rebeckah is the owner and director of Astoria Birth Center & Family Medicine, which opened three years ago. She has spent the last seven years in advocacy for birthing people and birth professionals in the state of Oregon has been involved in birth work for fourteen years in a variety of roles. Rebeckah gained a strong background in research through her degree in Biology and during her time working with world infectious disease leaders while managing a parasitology lab at Harvard School of Public Health. She has used this background to present compelling, data-driven arguments in favor of the sustainability of midwifery and birth centers to insurers, legislators, and policymakers on the state and national level.

Desiree LeFave, CPM, LDM
Desiree became a midwife in 2001 and has been co-owner of Bella Vie Gentle Birth Center in Salem, Oregon since 2007. She has had the privilege of attending many hundreds of women in their births, the vast majority of which have been in birth centers.  She has served as a board member for the Oregon Association of Birth Centers since it’s inception in 2014, and focuses her work for them on sustainability. Desiree also supports her sister birth centers in knowing their value, advocating for in-network relationships, and demystifying insurance contracts.  At the national level, Desiree co-chairs the AABC Industry Relations Committee, and internationally she is a co-founder of MamaBaby Haiti. 

Laura Wiegand, MBA
Laura is the COO/Co-Founder of Birth Partners, INC. She has successfully managed the openings and operations of several Birth Centers across the country. At the national level, she currently co-chairs the AABC’s Industry Relations Committee, and on a state level she serves on the Illinois Birth Center Task Force Committee, the Oregon Association of Birth Centers, and the Florida Birth Center Owners. She works at the state and local level to educate medical communities and health insurance providers about the benefits of the midwifery and birth center model of care including better outcomes, reduced costs for families and payors. Laura was awarded the 2022 AABC Professional Award, in recognition of her passion, advocacy and dedication to the birth center model of care. With over 25 years of healthcare management experience, Laura has made her passion of maximizing care, while securing financial results and building a team that focuses on family and the entire the experience, serving as a resource for many aspects of healthcare and birth center operations.