The deadline for 2007 Board nominations has been extended for two more weeks. If you are interested in serving on the Board or nominating someone else, please send in your form by the March 15.

The following will provide the nomination form and information on the present constitution of the board and available openings. Noniation Form

Please follow the instructions as specified in the form and mail the nomination form along with the requested candidate information using the enclosed self-addressed envelope.

Electronic nominations will not be accepted. The last day for receipt of the nomination form (not postmarked) is March 15, 2007.

The Report of the Therapeutics and Technology Assessments Committee, a subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology concluded that epidural steroid injections in may result in some improvement in radicular lumbosacral pain when assessed between 2 and 6 weeks following the injection, compared to control treatments (Level C, Class I-III evidence). The average magnitude of effect is small and generalizability of the observation is limited by the small number of studies, highly selected patient populations, few techniques and doses, and variable comparison treatments; 2) in general, epidural steroid injection for radicular lumbosacral pain does not impact average impairment of function, need for surgery, or provide long-term pain relief beyond 3 months. Their routine use for these indications is not recommended (Level B, Class I-III evidence); 3) there is insufficient evidence to make any recommendation for the use of epidural steroid injections to treat radicular cervical pain (Level U).

It is clear there are a multitude of issues with this report. Dr. Manchikanti would like members to read this carefully and send feedback in the form of letters to the editor.

Report

The ASIPP discounted room block for the 2007 Competency Review Courses and Examinations in Coding, Compliance, and Practice Management Controlled Substance Management ends on Monday, March 13. To assure your discounted rate, you should register and book your room before 5 PM on Monday.

The course will be held at the the Caribe Royale Resort in beautiful Orlando, FL. The five-day intensive review course (April 12- 16) is planned as a CME activity to prepare physicians seeking competency certification and to provide Interventional Pain Management Specialists and other healthcare providers an in-depth review of multiple areas of interventional pain management.

The Competency Certification Exams will be held on April 17. In today's environment of regulations and litigation, this is one course you can't afford to miss. courses and exams!

Register Online Today!

Once again we are reminding you to get your letters to Congress this week. You may feel that ASIPP’s many pleas are overwhelming and perhaps even unnecessary but nothing could be further from the truth.

These ASC cuts will be devastating not only for those who are currently practicing in the ASC setting but eventually they will affect all who practice pain management including office-based practices. It is an issue of access and the trend. Once the procedures are reimbursed at a lower rate in ASCs the cuts will create even deeper cuts to the office setting. Eventually everyone will fill these cuts.

Here's the bottom line:

• In the proposed rule, 9 of the top 11 procedures performed by interventional pain physicians in an ASC will face a permanent reduction of 27% starting in 2009 (total of 135% over a 5-year period).
• Even during the phase-in period of 2008, cuts will be approximately 12%. (see fact sheet)

By the end of this week, we must bombard Congress with our requests to co-sign this letter and save interventional pain management. In order to do this, we need each and every member to participate. You must not only send letters for yourself, but also ask your colleagues, staff, friends, and patients to do the same.

Capwiz link: Physicians
Capwiz link: Patients
Capwiz link: Staff, friends and family

CMS Letter

In the face of rising trends in prescription drug abuse, the Federal government today issued new guidelines for the proper disposal of unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly released the new guidelines, which are designed to reduce the diversion of prescription drugs, while also protecting the environment.

Read more in the News and Public Affairs

Federal Guidelines

Democrats this year are making "concerted efforts" to cut Medicare Advantage payment rates "as a way to finance other spending priorities," such as fixing a scheduled 10% reduction in Medicare physician payments, CQ HealthBeat reports (Carey, CQ HealthBeat, 3/6).

House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) on Tuesday said he supports eliminating overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans to prevent the physician payment reduction, which is scheduled to take effect next year (Johnson, Congress Daily, 3/7).

House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) cited data from a Medicare Payment Advisory Commission report that indicated payment rates to Medicare Advantage plans average 112% of fee-for-service payment rates (CQ HealthBeat, 3/6).

Stark and Pallone both have said they want to find a permanent solution for the Medicare physician payment system. MedPAC Chair Glenn Hackbarth on Tuesday told the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee that a permanent solution to the physician payment system could be funded in part by reimbursing Medicare Advantage plans at the same rate as traditional fee-for-service plans and by stopping inflation updates in payments to Medicare providers. MedPAC also has recommended that the federal government develop payment incentives for physicians who provide quality care and eliminate overpayments of certain services.

Pallone said that overhauling the SGR formula was a priority for the 110th Congress. "The goal is to try to do some kind of permanent fix and not continue with these annual end-of-the-year changes," Pallone said, adding, "We want to make an effort to do something, if possible, this year, certainly within this session of Congress."

He also said that Congress should examine MedPAC's recommendation to cut Medicare Advantage reimbursements to secure more funding for physician payments (CQ HealthBeat, 3/6).

March 2, 2007 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today issued final guidance that describes FDA’s current approach to communicating drug safety information, including emerging safety information, to the public. The guidance also includes the factors that influence when such information is communicated. Important drug safety information has the potential to alter the benefit/risk analysis for a drug in a way that can affect decisions about prescribing or taking the drug. The guidance affirms the agency’s commitment to communicate important drug safety information in a timely manner, including in some situations when the agency is still evaluating whether to take any regulatory action.

FDA News

Canada - A series of drugstore robberies — including the weekend theft of about 10,000 painkillers from a St. John's store — has prompted pharmacies to change how they do business. Pharmacists say they are increasingly vulnerable because a once-abundant street supply of narcotics is drying up.

Ford Temple, whose pharmacy in Chapel Arm was robbed in February, said he believes the street supply of prescription narcotics is drying up, in part because a prescription monitoring program has cut down on forged prescriptions and patients visiting multiple doctors to get prescriptions.

CMC News

The Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services (CMS) announced this week that a PowerPoint Presentation on the 2007 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) is now available.

On December 20, 2006, President Bush signed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (TRHCA). TRHCA Section 101 authorizes a financial incentive for eligible professionals to participate in a voluntary quality reporting program. Eligible professionals, who chose to participate and successfully report on a designated set of quality measures for services paid under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and provided between July 1 and December 31, 2007, may earn a bonus payment of 1.5% of their charges during that period, subject to a cap. CMS has titled the statutory program the 2007 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI).

To access the PowerPoint Presentation, visit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PQRI on the CMS website and click on the Educational Resources tab.