The ASIPP 9th Annual Meeting and the 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 convene on day-two of the legislative session 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!

Meetings

A statewide database would alert authorities to prescription drug abuse - by both patients and doctors - under a bill making its way through the state House.

Once stalled due to privacy concerns, HB2136 would allow the state pharmacy board to monitor prescriptions and more easily uncover cases of "doctor shopping," where patients get drugs from multiple health care providers and pharmacies.

Sometimes these patients are abusing drugs because they're in pain, and sometimes they're selling the drugs they get. "We'd be able to find the doctor shoppers and get them help, and refer the others to law enforcement," said Hal Wand, executive director of the State Pharmacy Board.

East Valley Tribune.com

ASIPP members should continue to contact the members of the Senate to support the CMS reevaluation of the pending ASC cuts. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and David Vitter (R- LA) have taken the lead on this initiative by urging CMS to re-evaluate the proposed rule's payment formula. Our goal is to convince the senators from each state to join in this effort and also send a letter to CMS.

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 our earlier efforts to contact all the Representatives in the House, 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

The House ASC letter to CMS was officially dated 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.

CMS Letter with Signatures

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

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.

Meetings

The Commonwealth Fund, April 18, 2007 - More than half of all state Medicaid programs provide financial incentives to healthcare providers for better quality care. In addition, nearly 85 percent of states plan to have pay-for-performance programs within five years, according to a study by The Commonwealth Fund. Seventy percent of existing Medicaid pay-for- performance programs operate in managed care or primary care case management environments, with a focus on preventive health services and children's, adolescents' and women's health issues. Although planned programs are still focused on managed care and PCCM providers, they appear to be shifting their emphasis to environments in which quality and cost issues related to chronic disease management can be better targeted, the report says. In addition, rewarding the provision of primary care continues to be a component in the vast majority of Medicaid pay- for-performance programs.

HealthLeaders.com

Lawmakers are turning to legislation and litigation to change the makeup and authority of state medical boards. Those pushing for reforms believe the proposed changes will better protect the public and police the profession.

Lawmakers this year filed bills in Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and New Hampshire to add more public nonphysician members to the boards and give patients a greater voice in overseeing physicians. Board leaders said such legislation is part of a steady trend of placing more nonphysicians on boards, which some view as a way to keep physicians honest about regulating other doctors.

amednews.com

In a report to Congress released by HHS, Secretary Michael Leavitt announced the results of an electronic prescribing pilot project that support the adoption of new electronic prescribing standards. These standards, required by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, would help cut both medication errors and health care costs.

"Electronic prescribing improves efficiencies while helping to eliminate potentially harmful drug interactions and other medication problems," Secretary Leavitt said. "It also solves the problem of hard-to-read handwritten prescriptions. Additionally, such health information technologies promote affordability by allowing physicians to know which medications are covered by their patients' Part D plans."

The pilot project demonstrated that three initial standards are already capable of supporting e- prescribing transactions in Medicare Part D. These are standard transactions that provide physicians with patients' formulary and benefit information, medication history, and the fill status of their medications.

"The findings in this report, along with previously adopted foundation standards, demonstrate that HHS is effectively advancing electronic prescribing which will continue to help Medicare beneficiaries receive higher quality care," Secretary Leavitt said.

AHRQ Findings Report

HHS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)--Deaths from prescription drugs now roughly equal the number of murders in Tennessee, according to a report by The Tennessean. There were 31 fewer prescription-drug deaths than murders in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available, based on the newspaper's review of state medical examiner records.

Prescription drugs were linked to the deaths of at least 67 people in Davidson County in 2005 while statewide there were 401 such deaths. From 2002 to 2005, at least 1,240 Tennessee deaths were linked to prescription drugs.

Powerful prescription painkillers such as methadone, oxycodone and hydrocodone play a great role in overdose deaths in Tennessee, autopsy records show. Methadone, once primarily used to help heroin addicts kick the habit, is now often prescribed for chronic pain but has become a popular street drug linked to 231 deaths statewide from 2002 to 2005.

Read more at KnoxNews.com

American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians New York State Chapter will hold an annual state chapter meeting at the The Turning Stone Resort in Verona, NYon May 11th 2007 at 6 p.m. RSVP by April 27th to John Taylor (315)-727-0243

The reception will begin at 6 p.m. with the dinner meeting to begin at 7 p.m. Turning Stone Resort 5218 Patrick Road Verona, NY 13478 www.turningstone.com 1-800-771-7711 A limited number of rooms are available At the resort for a reduced conference rate of $225 Reservations should be made at 1-800-771-7711 Reserve referring to this meeting.

Bethesda, MD--In a recent Health Affairs article, a researcher details high self-referral rate among nonradiologist physicians billing California insurers for diagnostic imaging services.

The study published on the Health Affairs Web site provides the first empirical evidence concerning how often physicians are stretching federal and state laws--and perhaps breaking them--by referring patients to imaging providers with whom they have a financial relationship.

Prevelence of Physician Self-Referral