Expand your professional knowledge, network with colleagues and contribute to the sleep medicine field by volunteering to serve on an AASM standing committee. A diverse slate of committees enables you to engage your professional interests within the AASM.

Service as a committee member is a one-year appointment with a maximum of a three-year consecutive term, and it requires participation in monthly conference calls and collaborative involvement on projects that meet the committee mandate. Reports are sent to the board of directors on a quarterly basis. Volunteer by March 2!

Committees to Consider

Mandate: The Public Safety Committee identifies various occupations and populations that are a safety risk due to sleep deprivation and sleep disorders, and it develops strategies to advocate for and promote improved regulatory oversight, employer awareness, and employee and public safety.

Goals for 2018/2019:

  1. Identify and prioritize various occupations and populations that are a safety risk due to sleep deprivation and sleep disorders.
  2. Identify key stakeholders for potential collaboration, including federal agencies, professional societies, trade groups and safety advocates.
  3. Monitor regulatory agencies’ actions related to sleep health and safety and provide them with timely input from the AASM by drafting letters, public comments, editorials and/or position statements.
  4. Collaborate with stakeholders in developing protocols that address sleep and safety.

Mandate: The Accreditation Committee identifies potential concerns with accreditation standards and recommends courses of action to the board of directors. The committee will recommend to the board of directors’ accreditation status for all forms of accreditation.

Goals for 2018/2019:

  1. Develop resources to educate accredited facilities on understanding and implementing the accreditation standards.
  2. Assist in the review of accreditation applications submitted to the AASM.
  3. Evaluate the accreditation and reaccreditation standards in order to simplify requirements that have limited bearing on the quality of a sleep center.

Mandate: The Coding and Compliance Committee evaluates potential concerns related to existing codes in CPT, HCPCS Level II (DME codes), and code evaluations as determined by the Relative Value Scale Update Committee [RUC] and makes recommendations to the board of directors.

Goals for 2018/2019:

  1. Continue to monitor issues related to the sleep medicine family of codes in the HCPCS Level II and at the CPT and RUC levels.
  2. Identify opportunities for creating new codes for sleep medicine. This should include a review of all AASM clinical practice guidelines and ICSD-3.
  3. Prioritize a list of potential new CPT codes for which to develop CPT code proposals.
  4. Develop resources for members to educate them on how to properly comply with various rules and regulations (e.g., Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), navigating the 3% and 4% hypopnea rule).
  5. Update and maintain coding and compliance FAQs on AASM website.
  6. Respond to member inquiries specific to the areas of coding and compliance.
  7. Monitor changes in requirements for Alternative Payment Models (APMs) and review and revise previous APM proposal as necessary.

Mandate: The Education Committee proposes and develops educational programs, initiatives and products that meet the educational needs of the AASM membership and their patients.

Goals for 2018/2019:

  1. Review all AASM education products to identify any content gaps and update them to ensure alignment with current standards and guidelines.
  2. Develop a series of educational resources for approved sleep medicine partners outlining a model of care for diagnosing and treating sleep disorders.
  3. Review content of eligible online materials to ensure they meet ABIM MOC requirements.
  4. Review submissions for the Young Investigator Research Awards and ASMF High School Video Contest.

Mandate: The Lifelong Learning Development Committee develops educational resources related to lifelong learning in the field of sleep medicine, including the sleep medicine in-training examination and maintenance of certification (MOC) products.

Goals for 2018/2019:

  1. Update the sleep medicine in-training examination to ensure that it accurately reflects the content areas of the sleep medicine certification examination and has relevant and correct questions.
  2. Update existing MOC self-assessment exams to ensure they align with current standards and guidelines.
  3. Evaluate question performance in MOC self-assessment exams and replace poorly performing questions to ensure a high-quality learning experience.
  4. Develop references and/or rationale for questions in the AASM item bank where they are currently absent.

Mandate: The Payer Policy Review Committee develops and maintains resources based on AASM publications for payers to use when establishing sleep specific policies.

Goals for 2018/2019:

  1. Develop a list of clear, concise and relevant recommendations based off the Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Adult Obstructive Sleep Apnea with Positive Airway Pressure for payers to use when establishing policies.
  2. Develop a model template policy for positive airway pressure therapy for OSA based upon the clinical practice guideline.
  3. Communicate with payers to encourage correct interpretation and adoption of AASM recommendations.
  4. Create and maintain public online scorecards which show the Committee’s assessments of whether current published policies of select payers align with AASM publications.
  5. Track and review member concerns specific to payer policy issues and respond as necessary.

This joint committee of the AASM and the Sleep Research Society plans the clinical and scientific program of the SLEEP annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS).

The American Sleep Medicine Foundation (ASMF) invites qualified members to serve as award reviewers. If interested, please contact the ASMF at info@discoversleep.org.

Application Process

Members interested in volunteering on a committee should review the conflict of interest policy and submit the following four documents by email to Britney Heald at bheald@aasm.org by Friday, March 2, 2018.

1. Committee Volunteer Interest Form
2. Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form (select 1):

• COI Disclosure Form – Accreditation Committee
• COI Disclosure Form – Coding & Compliance Committee
• COI Disclosure Form – Other Committees

3. Copyright Assignment Form

4. 2-page CV/biosketch summary

Appointments will be recommended by the Committee on Committees in March and approved by the Board of Directors in April. Appointment notifications will be sent to volunteers in late April, with committee terms commencing at SLEEP 2018 in June.