The ASIPP 9th Annual Meeting and the SIPMS 2nd Annual Meeting will be held on June 23-27 in Washington, DC. This year we are offering a special Ethics Seminar. CMEs specially gained from ethic training is a requirement of the Board of Medical Licensures, as well as for acquiring hospital privileges.

A second important  highlight of the Annual Meeting is our  Legislative Session and Capitol Hill visits. We will again this year take our legislative session to Capitol Hill where we will be joined by several members of Congress. These speeches will be informative and very helpful in preparing for our Congressional visits. The meeting this year will convene in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.

We encourage you to sign up for and participate in the Capitol Hill visits which will take place on June 26- 27. This is your opportunity to make your voice heard!

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.

If you have never attended the Legislative Session before, we urge you to do so this year. Interventional pain management is facing many grave issues in the upcoming year so please take advantage of 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!

See Brochure

ASIPP Meetings

After much work and aggressive lobbying by the the Minnesota Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, on Saturday Gov. Pawlenty signed the Health and Human Services (HHS) bill bringing NASPER to Minnesota. Although he line-item vetoed a few Minnesota Care provisions, most of the bill was left intact, including the NASPER language.

The first HHS bill was vetoed by Governor Pawlenty and House File 1078 was used as the vehicle for the new HHS bill.

Congratulations to MSIPP. Special thanks go to MSIPP President and ASIPP Vice-President Elect, David Schultz, MD and the MAPS team, Georgann Gillund, Marsha Theil, Heather Kennan, and others. Without their hard work, persistence and dedication, the NASPER bill would likely never come to fruition.

Read about their grassroots effort in the Summer 2006 ASIPP News.

Final NASPER Language

Last week the Ohio Supreme Court reversed a previous ruling to allowing anesthesiologist assistants to now administer epidurals and spinal anesthetic procedures.

In a unanimous ruling, the court said properly trained assistants can perform the procedures if an anesthesiologist who is in the room to supervise. It said the Medical Board's rule conflicts with state law.

Ruling

The Columbus Dispatch

Thanks to all the members who responded to our request to increase the letters to Congress. We encourage all ASIPP members  to continue contacting the their State Senators to encourage CMS to reevaluate the pending ASC cuts.

Please 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. Remember this effort is a marathon, not a sprint. Victory can only come IF we stay in the race.

Go to the ASC Alert page on the ASIPP Web site for link to the Capwiz letters, sample letters, information on the cuts and more.

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. It will also transfer to and effect office based procedures and physician fees.

Act today!

The ASIPP Comprehensive Imaging Review in Interventional Pain Management will be held on July 13-15, 2007 in Las Vegas, NV with a competency certification in Fluoroscopic Interpretation and Radiation Safety for Physicians only to follow on July 16. The online brochure and registration are now available.

The comprehensive seminar is designed to provide interventional pain physicians with the ability to understand radiological evaluations and fluoroscopic interpretation.

This course is an essential component for interventional pain physicians and will provide educational opportunities to assist you in providing high quality, competent, safe, and cost-efficient services to your patients.

Register

Buying prescription drugs illegally over the Internet is on the rise in the United States, according to witnesses testifying recently before a Senate panel.

The number of rogue Web sites selling prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Vicodin and Ritalin has increased for three straight years, according to a recent report released by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University and discussed at a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

The committee addressed the prospering illegal Internet prescription-drug business, in which rogue pharmacies, sometimes operating from abroad, quickly set up Web sites advertising opiates such as Vicodin and OxyContin and just as quickly disappear, leaving federal regulators unable to track down the culprits.

The Buffalo News

DocumentShare is an online site of ASIPP with tools for sending, receiving, and organizing documents online. The site was developed to allow ASIPP members, committees, associates, staff, etc. the ability to transfer large files and organize them by use. It is accessed via the Internet and requires no special software. Upon request, an account is setup with a password according to the access privileges and an email notification is sent.

DocumentShare contains password-protected directories to ensure the integrity and security of the information. Directories are created for uploading and downloading specific documents and for organizing those documents. These directories can represent type of documents, committees, books, etc. representing common interest areas for storing and retrieving documents. When a document is uploaded or downloaded, an email notification is sent to the designated people so any appropriate action can take place.

Users can search for documents by keyword. If you have any questions concerning DocumentShare or would like to setup an account, contact Ray Lane at rlane@asipp.org. The site address is http://www.asippit.com/documentshare/default.html

Interventional Techniques in Chronic Spinal Pain is  the premier manual for interventional pain management physicians. This must have text book has an expected publication date of Summer 2007. All proceeds go to the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.

Preorder your copy

ASIPP is offering a Comprehensive Pain Medicine Board Review Course for physicians seeking board certification or re-certification for ABMS Pain Medicine examination or for American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians Part I examination.

The review course will be held on Aug. 5 - 10 in Nashville, TN This six-day intensive Board Review Course is a CME activity which is geared to prepare physicians for their pain boards but can also serve an in-depth review of the specialty of pain medicine.

To register on-line or for more information on the review course or to register, visit our Web site.

Meetings

ABIPP Part I To Be Administered in August

ABIPP Part 1 exam will be administered in Nashville, TN, on Aug. 11, 2007 and registration is now open. The minimum requirements for eligibility are:

• A Primary ABMS or AOA board certification
• An active license to practice medicine in the United States

ABIPP Application

Riverside, Ohio police may have busted up a prescription drug ring and given a couple of baby boomers and a senior citizen a few more gray hairs in the process. Police said they bought drugs from a 48-year-old woman and a 74-year-old man in an undercover operation, after being introduced by a 51-year-old woman. (Warren , 5/19/07- Dayton Daily News)

Commander John Burke of the Warren County Drug Force said it's impossible to predict who gets involved with drugs, at what age or why. "It's like anything else, there's a whole gamut of reasons," Burke said. "Certainly prescription drug abuse is more prolific than it was in the past and older people have more access to these kinds of prescriptions. It's supply and demand. Those pills are worth more money than they were 20-30 years ago."

Dayton Daily News

It hasn't even started yet, but some physicians are already questioning the long-term sustainability of the CMS' new physician pay-for-reporting program, which may be too burdensome for some practices to implement.

Participating in the program, established by a 2006 tax bill, will require time, resources and staff-something not all physician practices are willing or able to provide, industry experts said. As a result, the physicians who decline to participate in the CMS' Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, or PQRI, will lose out on the 1.5% bonus payment the initiative pays. Missing out on the PQRI reporting bonus comes at a time when Medicare reimbursements are expected to drop by almost 10% in 2008 or remain the same-an approach that doesn't account for yearly inflation increases-if Congress intervenes.

And some say the Democratic-majority Congress may decide to limit or trash the program, which was created when the Republicans were in power.

Modern Healthcare