Conway to Advocate for Better Insurance Coverage

NMDP Announces New Payor Policy Manager Position

The National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP) is pleased to announce the appointment of Craig Conway to the newly created position of manager of payor policy. Conway will focus on effecting positive change in health care insurance policies by educating payors and advocating for better health insurance coverage for transplant patients. The mission of the NMDP, based in Minneapolis, Minn., is to extend and improve life through innovative stem cell therapies.

"A major barrier to transplant is inadequate health insurance coverage. Our goal in creating this position is to address those barriers at a national payor level," Pamela Weisdorf, director of the NMDP Office of Patient Advocacy, said. "In addition to advocating for better coverage for patients, we believe that assisting Transplant Centers in getting better reimbursement for their services provides a win-win situation for everyone."

Previously, Conway was an administrator in the Hematology/Oncology Department at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., where he had fiscal and operational responsibility for the department. He also helped establish the BMT program at University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina, a joint venture of the Brody School of Medicine and Pitt County Memorial Hospital. Serving as a liaison between the institutions, Conway was responsible for analyzing and reporting clinical and financial outcomes and managing internal operations and payor issues. In addition, he has been an oncology consultant for health care organizations throughout the country.

"My goal is to increase payor awareness about unrelated allogeneic transplantation to help transplant facilities receive adequate and timely reimbursements for services provided to patients," Conway said. "This key responsibility supports the NMDP and Office of Patient Advocacy effort to facilitate and expedite patients through the transplantation process."

Conway earned a B.S. in business from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., where he was a "top-5" graduate in his class. He also has taken MBA graduate courses in health care administration at East Carolina University. He is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma and Sigma Iota Epsilon business honor societies, as well as the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

The National Marrow Donor Program is the international leader in the facilitation of unrelated marrow and blood stem cell transplantation. Based in Minneapolis, Minn., the non-profit organization facilitates unrelated marrow and blood stem cell transplants for patients with life-threatening diseases who do not have matching donors in their families. Since 1986, the NMDP has facilitated more than 13,000 unrelated stem cell transplants for patients with blood disorders, such as leukemia and aplastic anemia, as well as certain immune system and genetic disorders. For more information, call (800) MARROW-2.