The Online Abstract Submission for the 10th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians is now open. The meeting will be held June 21- June 25, 2008 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Washington, DC.

To be considered for a presentation at the meeting, abstracts must be submitted and completed by the submission deadline of 5 pm Central Standard Time (CST) Friday, December 28, 2007.

Click here for rules an submission direction

"Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." - Calvin Coolidge

All 3 final rules are now in. The brutal cuts to physician payments, specifically in the office setting, appear to be final for physician payments and ASCs. We really can't blame anyone except ourselves. Because our reaction has been so poor, we must stand up and take the blame.

Having admitted our own failures, let us do something about it. Let us NOW stand up and ACT. There is still time. up your efforts to contact your Congressional officials. We must act immediately if we are to make an impact.

Please send or continue to send letters. Your letters are not enough though you must get signatures from your patients and encourage your colleagues to get involved as well. It is up to you to make them aware and believe us they care. If you truly are interested in saving your practices and medicine in general, please act immediately.

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.

Please take the time to 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

In what is becoming an annual rite, physicians are again fighting to prevent a reduction in Medicare payments. This time, however, the cut is in the double digits and is the largest ever.

The Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services final 2008 Medicare physician fee schedule rule institutes an average 10.1% pay cut effective Jan. 1, 2008, although the percentage will vary by specialty, practice and geography.

The rule also lists the 74 quality measures to be used in the Physicians Quality Reporting Initiative in 2008. It specifies that a $1.35 billion fund adopted last year will go to the PQRI and not toward easing physician pay cuts. The regulation also delays finalizing most of the latest revised physician self-referral, or "Stark," rules.

There a still a few spots open for the upcoming Spinal Cord Stimulation Review Course and Cadaver Workshop. This information-packed intensive review course and cadaver workshop, Nov. 30 - Dec. 2,  will provide a comprehensive learning experience focusing on various aspects of spinal cord stimulation.

The course will be conducted at the historic Peabody Hotel and the Medical Education Research Institute in Memphis, TN.

On November 9, 2007, a final rule delaying the effective date of certain provisions of Phase III (CMS- 1810-F) was made available for Public Inspection at the Office of the Federal Register.  This final rule (CMS- 1810-F2), which will be published in the November 15, 2007 Federal Register, delays the effective date for one year (that is, until December 4, 2008) the "stand in the shoes" provisions of the Phase III final rule as to the following  compensation arrangements between the following physician organizations and entities ONLY:

-- with respect to an academic medical center as described in §411.355(e)(2), compensation arrangements between a faculty practice plan and another component of the same academic medical center; and

-- with respect to an integrated section 501(c)(3) health care system (as described in today's final rule), compensation arrangements between an affiliated DHS entity and an affiliated physician practice in the same integrated section 501(c)(3) health care system.

Police began rounding up suspects yesterday in an investigation that identified 180 people from Eastern Kentucky who were traveling to get prescriptions from doctors in Ohio and Philadelphia (Bill Estep, Herald-Leader, Nov. 9, 2007)

"Doctors here in Kentucky were actually the victims because they didn't know these people were seeing another doctor," Dalrymple said. "These individuals were obtaining between 80 and 200 pills each month."

Going to an out-of-state doctor is not illegal, but many of those people came back to doctors in Kentucky with the same complaints and got more pills, Iain Dalrymple, manager of Operation UNITE's Big Sandy Drug Task Force, said in a news release.

Going to more than one doctor to get multiple prescriptions is called doctor shopping. The suspects traveling to other states were identified during an investigation that dates to late 2004, and many are linked to an ongoing federal investigation, said Dan Smoot, law-enforcement director for UNITE.

Herald-Leader.com

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced today that the department, through the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services (CMS), is proposing rules to adopt new standards to advance the use of electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) for formulary and benefit as well as medication history transactions used under the Medicare prescription drug benefit.

The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 requires CMS to adopt final standards for e-prescribing. All providers and pharmacies transmitting prescriptions electronically for Medicare-covered drugs are required to comply with any CMS standards in effect.

"Providers need to know up front which drugs have been prescribed previously for their patients, and which drugs could have harmful interactions. The use of these standards for e-prescribing will bring us much closer to a connected system of health care that will deliver safer, more convenient care at lower cost to all Americans," Secretary Leavitt said.

Read more on EPrescribing

The Interventional Pain Management Benchmark Survey Ended yesterday. The survey generated over 150 responses which exceeds many of the MGMA responses for specialities much larger than Interventional Pain Management.

We would like to thank our members for the excellent response.The survey is important to interventional pain in that the information from this survey provides useful benchmarking data for pain specialty practices.

The findings will be discussed along with information on "how to use the findings" at the ASIPP Practice Management conference at the June Annual Meeting.

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 Physician -- Louisville, Kentucky

Pain Management -- Florida

Pain Management Opportunity -- Pennsylvania

Entrepreneurial Opportunity -- Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Florida Opportunities

Pain Medicine Fellowship Program Opportunity

Interventional Pain Specialist -- Toledo, Ohio

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

Interventional Pain Medicine Physician -- St. Cloud, Minnesota

Entrepreneurial Opportunity -- Wooster, Ohio

Musculoskeletal Interventionalist -- Dallas, Texas

Interventional Pain Specialist - Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Interventional Pain Physician -- New Hampshire

ASIPP is now offering the Interventional Techniques In Chronic Spinal Pain to all meeting registrants at the special price of 50% off.

"Interventional Techniques in Chronic Spinal Pain," is the premier manual for interventionalists. With detailed descriptions of practical techniques in interventional pain management this is a must have publication for all interventioanl pain physicians. Additionally Eeach book comes with a complimentary CD version of the book.

To order your copy, go to ASIPP Web site.

ASIPP Publishing