The ASIPP 9th Annual Meeting and SIPMS 2nd Annual Meeting will be held on June 23-27 in Washington, DC. Along with the Annual Meetings, plan to attend the Legislative Session and take part in the Capitol Hill visits. This year's event promises to informative and also memorable, with the second day of our legislative session taking place on Capitol Hill.

The annual meeting will again this year convene in the Russell Room on Capitol Hill where we will be honored with the presence of several congressional speakers. We encourage you to sign up for and participate in the Capitol Hill visits which will take place on June 27- 28. This is your opportunity to make your voice heard! But please register early to assure your visit with your state's representative. We will make every effort to schedule your personal request but to increase the likelihood of your visit; we strongly encourage you to register early.

Interventional pain management is facing many grave issues in the upcoming year so we urge you to take this rare opportunity to express your concerns face-to- face with your elected officials. Remember there is great strength in numbers. Join us on Capitol Hill and let's make it the largest ASIPP group ever!

The House ASC letter to CMS was offically date April 2, 2007 and signed by 66 representatives. We have accomplished even more than we set out to and the thanks go to all our members who worked diligently writing letters and making calls. We are especially thankful to Reps. Frank Pallone and Ed Whitfield who took the lead on this project. Click on the link below to see the signed letter.

But our work has just begun and now we must reach the Senate. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and David Vitter (R- LA) have taken the lead on this initiative to convince CMS to re-evaluate the proposed rule's payment formula by co-signing their own letter to CMS. Our goal is to convince the senators from each state to also send a letter.

As you know from previous correspondences, if Congress does not act, these proposed major changes to the Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) payment system, currently under review by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will have devastating effects on interventional pain management and ultimately hurt patient access.

As in the House campaign, we have made this simple for you. The following link will take you to the Capwiz site where you can effortlessly e-mail your senators with this important message. http://www.asipp.org/cms-asc/

If you prefer, you can send the letter on your personal or business letterhead. I urge you to do this as soon as possible and to encourage your colleagues to join in the effort. Additionally, we urge you to have your patients sign the letter and support this effort as well.

• Identify patients' state and Senators
• Customize and print off copies of the sample letter (one for both Senators)
• As your patients sign out, ask them to fill out and sign the bottom of the form
• Using the patient Capwiz link assign a staff member to submit the patients' letters
• Also you can print off the ASC Alert page and post it in your office to provide Web site information

CMS Letter with Signatures

In a Health Affairs Web exclusive, Lawrence Casalino, an assistant professor of health studies at the University of Chicago, and Arthur Elster, director of the medicine and public health division at the American Medical Association, discuss how pay-for- performance and quality-reporting programs can unintentionally exacerbate racial and ethnic health disparities if they are not designed with attention to these issues. The authors describe how these programs could lead to increased disparities, and they suggest ways to prevent adding to disparities and, in some cases, how to reduce them . (Casalino/Elster, Health Affairs, 4/10)

Health Affairs

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has issued new guidance on compliance with the HIPAA National Provider Identifier (NPI) Rule after the May 23, 2007 implementation deadline.

CMS Guidance

The online brochure for the May Interventional Techniques Review Course and Comprehensive Interventional Cadaver Workshop is now available.

This course is planned as a CME activity which will provide an in-depth review of interventional techniques and/or prepare physicians seeking board certification.

Online registration is now open.

Meetings

In an attempt to encourage Congress to address the ever growing problem of drug abuse, particularly in teens, the Office of National Drug Control Policy published a April Recess Kit - Prescription Drugs: An Emerging Threat.

ONDCP Recess Kit

More than 15,000 people have accessed the article "A randomized, controlled trial of spinal endoscopic adhesiolysis in chronic refractory low back and lower extremity pain," earning it a "highly accessed" flag on BioMed Central's online journal, Anesthesiology. The article, authored by Laxmaiah Manchikanti, Mark V. Boswell, Jose J. Rivera, Vidyasagar Pampati, Kim S. Damron, Carla D. McManus, Doris E. Brandon and Sue R. Wilson, has been on the web site since Aug. 1, 2006. The "highly accessed" graphic appears on the journal's table of contents and search results to identify those articles that have been especially highly accessed, relative to their age, and the journal in which they were published.

"Prevalence of facet joint pain in chronic spinal pain of cervical, thoracic and lumbar regions," a May 2004 article by Laxmaiah Manchikanti, Mark V. Boswell, Vijay Singh, Vidyasagar Pampati, Kim S. Damron and Carla D. Beyer. This article has been accessed by more than 31,800 people since it first appeared on BioMed Central.

"Risk of whole body radiation exposure and protective measures in fluoroscopically guided interventional techniques: a prospective evaluation." The article, written by Laxmaiah Manchikanti, Kim A. Cash, Tammy L. Moss, Jose Rivera, and Vidyasagar Pampati, was published in 2003, has been viewed over 12,800 times, and as the articles mentioned above, is available to open access on the BioMed Central Web site.

Acess these articles on BioMed Central

BioMed Central

CMS released the 2nd quarter National Correct Coding Inititive (NCCI) updats this week with no major changes, However, changes to be aware of are: codes 95865 adn 95866 were added into codes 64613, 64614 and 64640.

NCCI Updates