May 16-18, 2008

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

• 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 In Spinal Cord Stimulation

For the first time in nearly a decade, the ASIPP, AAPM, ISIS, the American Medical Association (AMA), and more than 70 other medical specialty societies have worked together to coordinate a comprehensive multi-specialty survey of America's physician practices. The survey will collect up-to-date characteristics of thousands of physician practices from virtually all specialties, and be used in efforts to positively influence national decision makers to ensure accurate and fair representation for all physicians and patients.

Getting our nation's policy-makers to understand today's landscape and the requirements for care is critical. These data will allow medicine to articulate the challenges of running a practice that provides expert patient care, while operating a business that is sustainable. The study results will not only help in the short-term but will allow future generations of doctors to continue providing superior care to their patients.

One particularly important section of the study pertains to practice expenses and the amounts that are attributable to you. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have indicated that the results of this study will be used to help determine physician payment. Please encourage your staff to make this information available as the survey's success depends on accurate and complete data. This information will remain confidential. The survey firm, Dmrkynetec, will not identify any individuals or entities participating in this research.

Dmrkynetec, a survey firm with extensive experience in the area of physician practice finance, has been retained to administer the survey. Dmrkynetec will contact randomly selected physicians and practice managers in order to collect their confidential responses. Please watch for this survey and complete it thoroughly and accurately. Thank you in advance for doing your part to represent our profession.

For More Information, Read FAQs

At the end of December Congress put a short- lived hold on a huge physician reimbursement cut. This year there are many problems we must address; the July 1 reimbursement cut, ASC payment cuts, NASPER funding, and increased costs, reimbursement denials, and ACOEM and ODG Guideline issues which will affect reimbursement. The issues seem insurmountable but with your help, we can tackle each one of these issues, one-by-one and win.

1. Physician Reimbursement Cuts
2. ASC Cuts
3. NASPER Funding

Send a letter addressing all three issues through Capwiz: http://capwiz.com/asipp/issues/alert/?alertid=11058511&type=CO

Our government officals need to hear from our patients as well. This is easy to accomplish; print out the patient letter we have provided and ask all your patients to sign it (the last page of the word document for your state, see link in paragraph above). After you obtain these signatures your staff can send them as a Capwiz letter using the following link: http://capwiz.com/asipp/issues/alert/?alertid=11058731&type=CO

If you have any questions, call the ASIPP office for assistance: 270-554-9412.

ASIPP is seeking abstracts submissions for the 10th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians is now open. The Online Abstract Submission deadline is March 31, 2008. 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 by the submission deadline of 5 pm Central Standard Time (CST) March 31, 2008.

Click here for rules and submission directions.

On May 16 - 18, ASIPP will hold a Review Course in Fluoroscopy & Cadaver Workshop in Spinal and Non-Spinal Interventional Techniques covering basic and intermediate levels. The course will be held at the Memphis Marriott Downtown and the Medical Education Research Center (MERI) in Memphis, TN.

At the completion of the Fluoroscopy course, physicians will also have the opportunity to sit for the ABIPP Competency Certification Examination in Fluoroscopic Interepretation and Radiation Safety.

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 early and save. Registrations received on or before April 25 may take advantage of the early registration discount.

The Memphis Marriott Downtown is our host hotel for this event. Book your room on or before April 23 to recieve the ASIPP discount group rate of $159. Call 1- 888-557-8740.

Meetings

While U.S. teenagers' use of marijuana is declining, their abuse of prescription drugs is holding steady or in some cases increasing, according to a report released Wednesday by White House drug czar John Walters.

"The drug dealer is us," said Walters, the national drug policy director. Walters said many teenagers are obtaining drugs over the Internet, getting them free from friends or taking them from someone's medicine cabinet.

MSNBC

Many states enacted modest health coverage expansions in 2007, but gloomy budget forecasts will continue to make it tough for them to adopt more expensive, comprehensive health reforms (Trapp, amednews, March 10, 2008)

Three major state reform trends continued or developed in 2007, said Susan Laudicina, one of the authors of a recent BlueCross BlueShield Assn. report on health legislation. States continue to adopt bills expanding access to public health programs and legislation making private insurance more affordable or flexible. Ten states also adopted transparency bills, most of which required hospitals to disclose medical errors and infection rates.

Read More

Glenns Ferry Health Center used to attract international medical graduates looking for work. But the Idaho clinic is now struggling to hire IMGs and finds itself part of a national crisis facing rural health centers (Croasdale, amednews, March 10, 2008).

The clinic has one full-time physician and two locum tenens who run the center's three sites in the southern part of the state. Four doctors are needed, but two years of aggressive recruiting, including offering higher salaries, have generated no new hires, putting the clinic on the verge of closing one of its offices. That would leave patients, especially Medicaid mothers who rely on the center for prenatal and delivery services, few alternatives.

Read More

Photos from the March Review Course and Cadaver Workshop are now available for viewing.

View Photos

Politics not only may make strange bedfellows, but also could make enemies of normally cordial people. In this sometimes contentious political season, it is natural that doctors and staff might bring their political views into the workplace. Some even may wish to run for elective office.

The AMA and others say there's nothing wrong or unethical with doctors or staff supporting a candidate or running for office. Many believe that electing the right person could have a profound effect on health care and be as important to the patient population at large as clinical efforts are to individual patients. But how does a practice maintain individual rights to advocacy without creating divisions among staff, reducing morale and efficiency, and possibly even alienating patients?

amednews.com

The Massachusetts Blues believes that the return on physicians' investment doesn't warrant buying the technology as part of its bonus programs (Dolan, amednew.com, March 10, 2008).

One health plan has come to a conclusion that many physicians already have reached: The financial benefits of office-based electronic medical records systems are not worth the cost to doctors.

Relying on information from past studies, including an American Medical Association estimate that doctors see only 11 cents of every dollar saved through the use of information technology, BlueCross BlueShield of Massachusetts recently announced that it has decided not to require physicians to install an EMR to participate in its bonus program.

amednews.com

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:

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.

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

Federal regulators have proposed sweeping patient safety rules to give physicians and others a confidential, voluntary way to report medical errors and near mistakes. Several health care organizations applauded the release of the long-awaited regulations but want a closer look before making a final judgment (Hansen, amednews.com, March 10, 2008).

The rules, published Feb. 12 by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, would implement the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005. The law, supported by the American Medical Association, authorizes creating patient safety organizations to which doctors, other health professionals, hospitals and other institutions could report mistakes.

amednews.com

Whenever a celebrity dies after overdosing on painkillers, Mary Deal of Campbell, Minn., cringes. Until recently, it meant that the 31-year-old would face greater scrutiny when requesting relief for chronic hip pain. (Erin Hemme-Froslie, March 10, 2008, The Forum, DL-Online)

"People question your use of painkillers more," she says. "They ask if you're really in pain. Believe it or not, some of us are."

The Forum DL-online

The New Hampshire Society of Interventional Pain Physicians Annual Meeting will be on March 26, 2008 at CR Sparks in Bedford, NH. The meeting will feature Dr. Ramsin Benyamin, Executive Vice President of ASIPP, presenting a lecture on Vertebroplasty and Sacroplasty.

NH Annual Meeting Agenda

Registration Form

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