Registration Open for Comprehensive Review Course

The ASIPP room block for the 2007 Comprehensive Review Course and Examinations in Coding, Compliance, and Practice Management  Controlled Substance Management has ended but room discounts will still be honored. Rooms are limited - immediate registration is encouraged.

Discounts Offered

In response to your requests, ASIPP is offering a discounted fee for the review course for non-physicians. Registration for non-physicians has been reduced $200. The registration fee for both courses is now $1,000. Individual courses have also been reduced to $700.

Exam Registration for Physicians has also been reduced. Now you may register for both exams for $1,000 - single exams are now $500. Refunds will be issued to those who have already registered where applicable.

The course will be held at 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 exam will follow on April 17.

In today's environment of regulations and litigation, this is one course you can't afford to miss. courses and exams.

Discounted Registration Form

Membership response to the ASC letter writing campaign has been low and unfortunately, time is running out.

We need 1000 letters form each district. If you have sent letters, we thank you. If you have not, there is still time to do so. Reps. Pallone and Whitfield and Sen. Brown and Vitter are working to get their colleagues to sign on to their letter to CMS. We must help them convince their colleagues through our calls and letters to our public officials.

• 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)

This is our battle and Rep. Pallone and Whitfield can not make this happen alone.  We must continue to write letters to Congress with our requests to co-sign this letter and save interventional pain management. One letter is not enough, it will take many letters to make a true impact.

We must continue to write letters to Congress with our requests to co-sign this letter and save interventional pain management. One letter is not enough; it will take many letters to make a true impact. In order to do this, we need each and every member to participate. A successful campaign requires not only your individual letters, but also those from your colleagues, staff, friends, and patients Please continue to send these letters and to ask your friends, family and patients to as well. We must keep this effort going until the Friday, March 23 deadline for Congressional signatures.

Capwiz links:
Physicians: http://capwiz.com/asipp/issues/alert/?alertid=9377426&type=CO
Patients: http://capwiz.com/asipp/issues/alert/?alertid=9377586&type=CO
Staff, friends and family: http://capwiz.com/asipp/issues/alert/?alertid=9377651&type=CO

CMS Letter

Washington Post -Researchers at the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse are launching the first large-scale national study to evaluate treatment of addiction to prescription pain medications such as OxyContin and Vicodin.

The 11-site Prescription Opiate Addiction Treatment Study will examine the effectiveness of buprenorphine/naloxone tablets (Suboxone), along with different kinds of drug counseling, in patients addicted to prescription opioids.

The study is a response to the growing problem of prescription drugs abuse in the United States. In 2005, more than six million Americans reported nonmedical use of prescription drugs within the previous month, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That's more than the number of people who used cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, and inhalants combined.

Read More

ASIPP is pleased to report that the Louisiana Supreme Court has denied writs filed by the LSBN and related entities. Thus, the First Circuit ruling is now final.

Last month ASIPP filed an Amicus Curiae in support of Spine Diagnostics Center of Baton Rouge, Inc., in the ongoing issue with the Louisiana State Board of Nursing (LSBN). This was in response to the ongoing battle to expand their practice privileges, the Louisiana State Board of Nursing.

As reported earlier, in the ongoing battle to expand their practice privileges, the Louisiana State Board of Nursing filed a writ in response to the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal judgment rendered against them last month. The writ was filed on Jan. 29 to the Louisiana Supreme Court. On Jan. 3, 2007, ASIPP reported that the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal rendered a judgment which finds the LSBN lacked authority to authorize certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) practice of chronic interventional pain management. The Court also ordered the trail court to grant the preliminary injunctions prohibiting CRNAs from performing such procedures.

As Internet blogging spreads across professions, doctors' observations and opinions about patients -- some expressed in graphic detail -- are now ending up on the Web for all to see. Hundreds of doctors across the country are writing Internet diaries that sometimes include harsh judgments of patients, coarse observations and distinct details of some cases.

Medical blogging is so new that medical boards, schools and professionals disagree on what is acceptable. Critics say the blogs cross into an ethical gray area and threaten patient privacy while posing liability risks for health workers and their employers.

Washington Post

If you tune in to CBS news tonight you just might see a segment featuring ASIPP member Dr. Sam Hassenbusch.

Over the past two years, ASIPP has shared with our members Hassenbusch's battle with Glioblastoma. Tonight you can learn more about his successful battle against the disease.

They (CBS) told me it will be aired Wednesday and Friday this week, Hassenbusch said. "But all this might get bumped if there's more fast-breaking news."

Hassenbusch underwent surgery at M.D. Anderson on May 25, 2005, followed  by radiation and chemotherapy. After doing a great deal of research, he approached Dr. Amy Heimberger, a fellow neurosurgeon at M.D. Anderson, and asked about receiving a new treatment she was testing with Dr. John Sampson at Duke˜a cancer vaccine for glioblastoma.

The vaccine works by training the immune system to attack cells that have an abnormal receptor on their surface called (take a deep breath) epidermal growth factor receptor variant III, or EGFRvIII.

This experimental treatment has been a success for Hassenbusch as he continues to get good MRI reports.

Read MSNBC Article

Democratic Reps. Henry Waxman (Calif.) and Edward Markey (Mass.) have introduced legislation (HR 1561) that they say would make greater strides toward ensuring the safety of prescription drugs than Senate legislation (S 484) introduced by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.).

The Senate legislation would require drug regulators and companies to develop plans to monitor each new drug for side effects during its first three years on the market.

Kaisernetwork.org

The CMS-1500 claim form was updated to accommodate the mandated National Provider Identifiers (NPIs). The previous CMS-1500 (12-90) form did not have the fields for reporting of NPIs. Further information on the CMS-1500 form is available through the NUCC web site.

The CMS-1500 form is the standard claim form used by a non-institutional provider or supplier to bill Medicare carriers and durable medical equipment regional contractors (DMERCs) when a provider qualifies for a waiver from the Administrative Simplification Compliance Act (ASCA) requirement for electronic submission of claims. It is also used for billing of some Medicaid State Agencies.

CMS