The National Health Law Program is proud to announce that Senior Attorney Wayne Turner has been reappointed as a Consumer Representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).
For more than thirty years, the NAIC has engaged with health care and other advocates to raise consumer concerns with state insurance commissioners through the Consumer Representative Program.
In the past four years serving as a NAIC consumer representative, Wayne has worked to advance health equity, highlighting issues and opportunities for state regulators to improve health care access to low income and underserved persons. These include presentations at NAIC national meetings addressing:
- Obstacles to Medically Necessary Care – Refusal of Care and Network Adequacy
- EHB Benchmark Updating: The Benefits Outweigh the Burden
- Federal Health Policy Update for State Regulators
The Consumer Representatives also produced a report showing how insurers often unlawfully deny coverage or charge cost sharing for potentially life-saving preventive services and screenings, which are required by the Affordable Care Act. Wayne also spearheaded comments on a draft NAIC model bulletin on the use of artificial intelligence, including automated decision-making systems in health care.
In the coming year, Wayne and his fellow Consumer Representatives plan to focus on common obstacles to care, including prior authorization and other utilization management, discriminatory benefit design, preventive services, and civil rights protections in health care programs and activities.
Wayne earned his B.A. at Reed College and graduated magna cum laude from the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. In law school, Wayne worked as a fellow in the HIV/ AIDS Legal Clinic, where he prepared living wills and standby guardianships for clients with HIV/AIDS and their children. Wayne is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches a seminar class on LGBT Health Law and Policy.
