It is time to work your 2008 training into your schedule. In addition to the many CME training courses, you won't want to miss the 10th Annual Meeting/Celebration. Be sure to mark your calendar for the upcoming 2008 ASIPP meetings and take advantage of early registration discounts.

February 8-10, 2008

• Vertebroplasty, Kyphoplasty, Sacroplasty
• Registration is still open

• Review Course and Cadaver Workshop - March 7- 8
• FIPP Exam - March 9

• Review Course in Fluoroscopy
• ABIPP Competency Certification Exam in Fluoroscopic Interpretation and Radiation Safety
• Cadaver Workshop - May 17-18

• ASIPP 10th Annual Meeting Celebration
• Featuring Practice Management for Interventional Pain Physicians and Professionals
• Legislative Session and Capitol Hill Visits
• Abstract Presentations

• Board Review Course
• Coding, Compliance and Practice Management
• Controlled Substance Management
• ABIPP Competency Examinations
• ABIPP Part I Examination

• Review Course and Cadaver Workshop

• Review Course and Cadaver Workshop

On Dec. 4, 2008 the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM)  released a chapter on low back disorders as an update to its evidence-based practice guidelines. These guidelines are currently being used or considered by various state workers' compensation programs as coverage criteria for a wide-range of pain-related tests, therapies and interventions.

Unfortunately these guidelines contain a number of flaws which prevent  them from being used as a credible tool to guide clinical decisions. Because of this, the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP), along with the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM), the International Spine Intervention Society (ISIS), the Neuromodulation Academy Coalition (NTAC), and the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) have joined together to show our concern.

While we all strongly support the use of evidence- based medicine to guide clinical decisions, we oppose the inappropriate use of evidence-based guidelines as strict coverage criteria by public or private payers.

The guidelines are so troubling in fact, Representatives Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Ed Whitfield (R-KY) have issued a letter to the ACOEM expressing their concern.

On Nov. 26, 2007 ASIPP presented its specific concerns with the guidelines in a comment letter from CEO Laxmaiah Manchikanti to ACOEM President Robert McLellan.

Pain Medicine News covered the issue in its January edition. On Jan. 9, 2007 the Wall Street Journal also addressed issues with the ACOEM's guideline process.

Click on the following links to learn more about this pressing issue:

• ASIPP Comments
• Letter from ASIPP President
• Joint Position Letter
• Joint Letter to ACOEM
• Congressional Letter

Even with Medicare payments to physicians still in doubt for the final half of this year, lawmakers and their Medicare advisers already are thinking about how much doctors will be paid next year. It is possible that by early summer physicians will know what they'll be paid both in the last half of 2008 and in 2009 (Glendinng, amednews.com, Feb. 4, 2008 issue).

A six-month 0.5% boost is set to run out at the end of June and be replaced with a 10.1% reduction. This means that Medicare would cut pay across the board by 10.6% from current levels from July 1 through the end of the year.

The 2008 final physician fee schedule for interventional pain management procedures is now posted on the ASIPP Web site.

As a result of the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007, effective for claims with dates of service January 1, 2008 through June 30, 2008, the update to the conversion factor will be 0.5% ($38.0870); and for claims with dates of service July 1, 2008 and after, will revert back to the previous payment methodology (the -10.1% update) that was outlined in the Final Rule, published in the Federal Register on November 27, 2007.

CMS Overview

Massachusetts physicians say a recent high court ruling expands physician liability well beyond the bounds of the doctor-patient relationship. (Sorrell, amednews.com, Feb. 4, 2008 issue)

The state's Supreme Judicial Court said doctors are liable not just to patients but also anyone else "foreseeably" put at risk when doctors fail to warn patients about potential side effects of drugs they prescribe.

The Dec. 10, 2007, decision allows a mother to sue a doctor who prescribed numerous medications to a patient who hit her son in a car crash. The boy later died. The case heads to trial in a lower court, where a hearing has not yet been scheduled.

amednews.com

More than a month after a federal judge found Stephen Schneider to be a danger to the community, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts suspended the Haysville physician's license. The action Tuesday closed the Schneider Medical Clinic, where a physician assistant had continued to dispense prescriptions with minimal supervision, despite Schneider's imprisonment (Sylvester, The Wichita Eagle, Jan. 30, 2008)

A federal grand jury indictment in December accused Schneider and his wife, Linda, a nurse, of running a "pill mill" that illegally dispensed medications.

Read the complete order against Schneider

A class of osteoporosis drugs may cause severe and sometimes debilitating pain, the FDA warned Monday. The drugs, bisphosphonates, already carry warning labels about painful side effects, but some doctors still fail to consider whether the treatments are responsible for extreme pain in patients, the agency said.

FDA Alert

University of Wisconsin researchers found that less than 4 percent of those who use opiates to control chronic pain became addicted. Physician Howard Brody applauds the conclusion that "the risk of addiction is not high enough to counter the value of opiate medications prescribed by primary care physicians." (Brody, Galveston Daily News, Jan. 8, 2008)

Pain Physician journal will feature three special topical issues this year, in addition to the regular bimonthly publications. The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians' official journal, Pain Physician, will feature these special issues:

February: Opioids - This issue will include the 2007 updated Opioid guidelines in addition to systematic reviews, and health policy reviews

June: Ethics - Topics will cover:
1. general issues in normative and applied medical ethics as relevant to the care of pain;
2. clinical ethical issues focal to under- and/or over- treatment of pain;
3. conceptual and practical issues related to informed consent;
4. conceptual and practical issues related to (institutional) review of (experimental, quasi- experimental and/or clinical) studies of pain assessment, and/or therapeutics;
5. ethical issues relevant to medico-legal concerns and/or development and articulation of health policy and law.

December: health policy and practice management

All written materials should follow Pain Physician manuscript for author's instructions. The topical issues will also undergo peer review. For more information contact Holly Long at hlong@asipp.org

For your convenience, you may now pay your dues online. Click here then click on "Renew Here." No password is required to renew. If you have questions or need assistance contact the ASIPP office at 270-554-9412 Ext. 208

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.

Fellowship Trained Physician — Northwest Indiana

Outpatient Interventional Pain Physician — Atlanta, Georgia

BC/BE Physiatrist — Shrewsbury, New Jersey

100% Pain Practice — Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Partnership Opportunity — Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Interventional Pain Physiatrist Wanted — Nevada

Interventional Pain Specialist — Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Pain Management Opportunity — Pennsylvania

Entrepreneurial Opportunity — Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Florida Opportunities

Pain Medicine Fellowship Program Opportunity

Interventional Pain Specialist — Paducah, KY and Marion, IL

Interventional Pain Medicine Physician — St. Cloud, Minnesota