ASIPP is offering a new feature for those who advertise on our Postions Wanted section of the ASIPP Website. As a service to our advertisers and our members, we will list the link to each current job posting.

Interventional Pain Specialist -- Paducah, KY and Marion, IL

Interventional Pain Medicine Physician – St. Cloud, Minnesota

Entrepreneurial Opportunity -- BE/BC Fellowship Trained Pain Physician(s)

Musculoskeletal Interventionalist -- Dallas, Texas

100% Pain Practice For an Anesthesiologist or Physiatrist -- Wisconsin

Pain Management Openings Fellowship Opportunities -- Florida

Interventional Physiatrist -- Wilmington, North Carolina

Pain Specialist -- Wisconsin

PainCare Holding, Inc.

We are facing severe cuts in physician payments, office procedures, and ambulatory surgery centers as well as a lack of funding for NASPER -- I would say we are in extremely bad shape. Three weeks ago ASIPP began a new Capwiz campaign in an effort to address these harsh and looming cuts we will be facing soon. Unfortunately member response to our request for participation has been abysmal.

The letter writing statistics are by far the worst in ASIPPs history of advocacy, with only 154 physician letters and approximately 2,700 patient letters, of which, 2,500 of these were from our own practice.

With a membership of over 4000 just imagine what a difference we could be making if each member sent 100 to 500 letters from their patients, staff, friends and family, we would flood our government officials with letters! This is a completely realistic goal for you. You could surpass this number with your patients alone. I urge you to take this matter seriously and begin today to send your letters to Congress. Today's complacency will become tomorrow's urgency.

To send a letter from yourself click on the Physician Capwiz Letter link below. You may edit the letter or send it as it is. You may send it through Capwiz or fax or mail the letter on your personal or business letterhead. The choice is yours.

It is hard to believe Congress will take our concerns seriously if we do not care enough about the situation to take a few minutes out of our day to send a letter, ask our colleagues to become involved and to get our patients involved.

ASIPP has created a new Capwiz letter campaign to assist you contacting Congress. We have created a link for physicians as well as a link for staff, family, friends and patients.

Please take the time to not only send a letter today. Additionally, we urge you to have your patients sign the letter and support this effort as well.

• Capwiz Physician Letter
• Capwiz Patient Letter
• Capwiz Staff Letter
• Capwiz Citizen Letter
  

1. Customize and print off copies of the sample
2. Identify patients' state, putting the names of their Senators and Representative at the top of the page along with the President. Only one letter with all the names is necessary (see example).
3. As your patients sign out, ask them to fill out and
4. Using the patient Capwiz link assign a staff
5. Also you can print off the ASIPP Advocacy page and post or hand out to your patients for more information
   

• Example Physician Letter
• Example Patient Letter
• Example Staff Letter
• Example Citizen Letter

The Comprehensive Interventional Cadaver Workshop and Review Course, Oct 5-7, 2007 will feature instruction for all levels of expertise; basic, intermediate and a special advanced session on discography techniques for the advanced section. This section will include minimally invasive disc surgery and LASE. The course will provide informative lectures preceding the hands-on instruction.

The course is a CME activity which is ideal for physicians who are seeking board certification or for those who are looking for an in-depth review of interventional techniques. Don't miss this excellent opportunity for professional enhancement.

Online Brochure

Companies that collect, analyze and sell medical data filed suits Wednesday in federal courts in Maine and Vermont, challenging laws in the two states that make doctors' prescription-writing habits confidential. (Adams, Associated Press, Aug. 29, 2007)

A similar law in New Hampshire, the nation's first, was overturned in April by U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro. That decision, in which Barbadoro cited unconstitutional free speech restrictions, has been appealed to the 1st U.S. Circuit of Court of Appeals in Boston.

The business of medicine has doctors moving into large groups or employed situations, studies find. (Cook, AMANews, Sept. 10, 2007 issue)

A survey released in August by the Center for Studying Health System Change found a marked increase in the percentage of doctors joining large, single- specialty groups, as well as entering employed situations. The survey, covering 1996 to 2005, also found a marked decrease in the percentage of physicians in solo or two-doctor practices, as well as a large drop in the percentage of doctors who have an ownership stake in their practices. The finding was especially apparent among older physicians.

AMANews

If House lawmakers have their way, the extent to which physicians see their Medicare payment rates rise or fall year by year would depend even more on what types of services they provide.

A provision in the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007, which the House passed Aug. 1, would alter the sustainable growth rate formula by establishing six separate categories for physician services. The categories would consist of primary care and preventive services; other evaluation and management services; major procedures; anesthesia services; imaging services; and minor procedures and all other services not falling into another category.

The proposed new conditions of participation include the following, according to CMS:

• creating a more comprehensive quality assessment and performance improvement condition (QAPI) that enables ASCs to take tailored proactive steps to ensure quality care
• requiring the ASC's governing body to be responsible for the oversight and accountability for the updated QAPI program
• adding a disaster-preparedness plan standard to address emergency preparedness within the facility and interaction with local and state officials
• adding requirements for radiologic services provided in an ASC to ensure they are parallel to the requirements for furnishing laboratory services
• adding a new patient rights condition to address disclosure of physician financial interests in the ASC, advance directives, the grievance process and confidentiality of clinical records
• adding a comprehensive patient assessment requirement to ensure that accurate and thorough assessments are conducted to assure appropriate and safe surgery, and that patients would be able to tolerate a scheduled surgical procedure
  

Public comments will be accepted until Oct. 30; a final rule will be issued later this year.

Becker's ASC Review

CMS has posted to its Web site the long and anxiously awaited final rule that interprets the Stark law prohibitions and exceptions governing referrals that physicians make to entities in which they have a financial stake. "In general, in response to public comments, in this Phase 3 final rule, we have reduced the regulatory burden on the healthcare industry,"  CMS concludes in its summary.

The Phase 2 draft of the rule has been in effect since 2004. The rule is slated to be published in the Federal Register on Sept. 5 and go into effect 90 days later.

CMS Press Release

Stark Regulations - CMS Final Rule

The North American Spine Society, in conjunction with AMA-Convened Physicians' Consortium for Performance Improvement National Committee for Quality Assurance American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons has drafted a set of performance measures on the topic of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis through the Consortium process. These measures are currently posted on NCQA website for a public review and comment period of August 29-September 25. These measures may be used for quality improvement and accountability and are likely, upon finalization, to be submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative and picked up by other payers and organizations. All comments will be reviewed by the developing Consortium work group prior to finalization. Your comments are important to patient care and this process. We urge you to participate. Spinal Stenosis measures (8/29-9/25)

The North American Spine Society, in conjunction with the AMA-Convened Physicians' Consortium for Performance Improvement; National Committee for Quality Assurance; American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons; American Academy of Physical Medicine; and Rehabilitation American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons has drafted a set of performance measures on the topic of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis through the Consortium process. These measures are currently posted on NCQA website for a public review and comment period of August 29-September 25.

These measures may be used for quality improvement and accountability and are likely, upon finalization, to be submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative and picked up by other payers and organizations. All comments will be reviewed by the developing Consortium work group prior to finalization. Your comments are important to patient care and this process.

Spinal Stenosis Measures (8/29-9/25)

The Kentucky Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (KSIPP) will hold its Annual Meeting in Lexington, KY on September 15 and 16 at the Hyatt Regency in beautiful downtown Lexington.

The meeting will begin at noon on Sat., Sept. 15 and end mid-day on Sun., Sept. 16. Lecture topics will include: Development of a DVD for Anatomical Sciences; SCS Controversies; Intrathecal Low Dose Opioids for Chronic Pain; Discography for IPM; Medicaid Forum for Drug Diversion; Legislative Challenges Facing IPM, and many other interesting and informative topics.

In addition to many informative lectures, we will also hold a fundraiser for Kentucky Congressman Ben Chandler who is a friend of ASIPP and serves on the Appropriations Committee. I hope all of you will attend. Mark you calendar, bring your staff and family and enjoy a wonderful weekend in Lexington, Kentucky.

Make your hotel reservations by contacting: Hyatt Regency Lexington 401 West High Street, Lexington, Kentucky, 40507 859-253-1234 http://lexington.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp Tell the booking agent you are reserving under ASIPP to receive the discount rate of $129 - Reserve early as all unbooked rooms will be released on August 21.

Online brochure

Register Online

More than 16,600 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 35,700 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 13,500 times, and as the articles mentioned above, is available to open access on the BioMed Central Web site. Access these articles on BioMed Central.

BioMed Central