Updated pain management questionnaires and Postservice change request form for submitting requests to TurningPoint coming in July

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Blue Care Network and TurningPoint Health Care Solutions LLC continue to identify ways to enhance your experience with the TurningPoint surgical quality and safety management program.

We're currently working on the following enhancements, which will be available in July 2021:

• For pain management procedures: We're updating the questions on the questionnaires you complete when you request authorizations.
• For all orthopedic, pain management and spinal procedures: We're updating the Postservice change request form.

When the updated forms are available, we'll let you know through a web-DENIS message and a news item on this website.

Pain management questionnaires

To simplify the process of submitting prior authorization requests, we're updating most questions on the following questionnaires to require a "yes" or "no" response:

• Epidural steroid injections
• Facet joint injections
• Neuroablation procedures
• Sacroiliac joint injections

These questions appear on the questionnaires in the TurningPoint Provider Portal and in the fax forms for submitting prior authorization requests.

Postservice change request form

We're updating the Postservice change request fax form as follows:

• Adding information about procedure code substitutions to help you identify situations where you can substitute a different procedure code for the procedure code TurningPoint authorized
• Adding the following questions:
  • “Have you submitted a claim to Blue Cross or BCN?”
  • “Have you submitted an appeal to Blue Cross or BCN?”

  Your answers to these questions will streamline the steps required to process postservice change requests.

Where to find fax forms for the TurningPoint program

You can find all fax forms for the TurningPoint program on the following pages of this website, along with other resources:

• Blue Cross Musculoskeletal Services
• BCN Musculoskeletal Services

Information about previous enhancements to this program

To view other enhancements to the TurningPoint program, see:

• The article titled We're enhancing TurningPoint surgical quality and safety management program to improve your experience in the June 2021 issue of The Record

We also published this information in the July-August 2021 issue of BCN Provider News.

• The Provider Alert titled Additional enhancements to the TurningPoint musculoskeletal surgical quality and safety management program (PDF)

Additional information

As a reminder, TurningPoint manages authorizations for orthopedic, pain management and spinal procedures for the following:

• Blue Cross commercial* - All fully insured groups, select self-funded groups and all members with individual coverage
• Medicare Plus Blue^SM members
• BCN commercial members
• BCN Advantage^SM members

*To determine whether you need to submit prior authorization requests for Blue Cross commercial members, see the document titled Determining whether Blue Cross commercial members require prior authorization for musculoskeletal surgeries and related procedures (PDF).

Posted: June 2021
Lines of business: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network