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
• Practice Management for Interventional Pain Physicians and Professionals
• Interventional Techniques
• Gala Celebration
• Abstract Presentations
• Legislative Session and Capitol Hill Visits

• 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

Congress is currently discussing a Medicare Package fix to address the pending cuts which means they need to hear form their constituents immediately. Additionally Senator Jim Bunning and Rep. Ed. Whitfield has created ASC language that if added on the the Medicare legislation, would save interventional pain management from the drastic cuts we currently face. We can not afford to put this off until a later date.

It is important that we begin contacting the members of the Senate Finance Committee immediately. The language must be added to the Medicare legislation by this committee before it can move forward. The committee members are as follows:

• MAX BAUCUS, MT (Chair)
• JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, WV
• KENT CONRAD, ND
• JEFF BINGAMAN, NM
• JOHN F. KERRY, MA
• BLANCHE L. LINCOLN, AR
• RON WYDEN, OR
• CHARLES E. SCHUMER, NY
• DEBBIE STABENOW, MI
• MARIA CANTWELL, WA
• KEN SALAZAR, CO
  

• CHUCK GRASSLEY, IA (Minority Leader)
• ORRIN G. HATCH, UT
• OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, ME
• JON KYL, AZ
• GORDON SMITH, OR
• JIM BUNNING, KY (Language Sponsor)
• MIKE CRAPO, ID
• PAT ROBERTS, KS
• JOHN ENSIGN, NV
• JOHN E. SUNUNU, NH
  

We need members who are constituents in the committee members' states to contact their senators as soon as possible. We have also created a new Capwiz letter in an effort to notify our legislators of this situation . We are facing devastating physician reimbursement cuts and even greater cuts to ASC and office-based procedures. While it may seem that ASCs are only the problem of those working in surgery centers, this is not the case. We must face the reality that our true problem is the consistent unfair cuts to IPM procedures ACROSS the board.

It will take a concerted effort on the part of the entire ASIPP membership if we are to get the ears and eyes of Congress and convince them to act. If someone on the committee is your state senator, please take the sample letter provided, place it on your letterhead and send it directly to him or her today. A direct call to their office is also encouraged. (contact information is provided in the links above).

You may send a letter addressing the 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.

Please plan to join us for the ASIPP 10th Annual Meeting on June 21-25, 2008. This year marks an important milestone; ten years as "The Voice of Interventional Pain Management."

This year's highlights include:

• ASIPP 10th Annual Meeting Gala Celebration
• Practice Management for Interventional Pain Physicians and Professionals
• Abstract Presentations
• Awards
• Congressional Speeches
• Legislative Session and Capitol Hill visits
  

We encourage you to register soon as we must begin making Capitol Hill appointments. This year it is our desire to have representation for each state. We encourage to plan today to attend. If you have never visited Capitol Hill before, don't miss this opportunity. For those of you who have participated in the past, we don't have to tell you what a wonderful experience this will be.

Brochure and online registraion are now available.

Register Today

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

The Texas Medical Board sanctioned two Austin- area doctors in connection with prescribing violations, including one whose patient died from an overdose.

The board's order says Woerner's nurse wrote the prescription, with Woerner's supervision and consultation, on the day the patient overdosed from hydrocodone and oxycodone, both addictive narcotics.

statesman.com

ASIPP has formally submitted the opioid guidelines update to the National Guidelines Clearinghouse. Opioids in the Management of Chronic Non-Cancer Pain: An Update of American Society of the Interventional Pain Physicians' (ASIPP) Guidelines The authors are: Andrea M. Trescot, MD, Standiford Helm, MD, Hans Hansen, MD, Ramsin Benyamin, MD, Scott E. Glaser, MD, Rajive Adlaka, MD, Samir Patel, DO, and Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD

This would be an update to the currently registered guidelines:

Opioid guidelines in the management of chronic non- cancer pain. See summary. American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians - Medical Specialty Society. 2006. 40 pages. NGC:004853 Other Guidelines from this Developer

In addition to the opioid guidelines ASIPP's spinal guidelines have been listed since 2003, with an updated in 2007. Interventional techniques: evidence- based practice guidelines in the management of chronic spinal pain. American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians - Medical Specialty Society. 2003 (revised 2007 Jan). 105 pages. NGC:005510

The 2007 The National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) is a comprehensive database of evidence- based clinical practice guidelines and related documents. NGC is an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NGC was originally created by AHRQ in partnership with the American Medical Association and the American Association of Health Plans (now America's Health Insurance Plans [AHIP]). The NGC mission is to provide physicians, nurses, and other health professionals, health care providers, health plans, integrated delivery systems, purchasers and others an accessible mechanism for obtaining objective, detailed information on clinical practice guidelines and to further their dissemination, implementation and use.

The process takes about 6 weeks to be finalized.

The pace of health care quality improvement appears to be slowing, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's fifth annual report compiling federal and state data on more than 200 quality metrics (O'Reilly,a mednews.com, April 28, 2008 issue).

A composite measure of health care quality improved at a 2.3% average annualized rate between 1994 and 2005, with the rate falling to 1.5% from 2000 to 2005. And in a first stab at examining the cost efficiency of the American health care system, AHRQ noted that costs, as estimated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, jumped 6.7% from 1994 to 2005.

Medical malpractice cases can drag on for years, exacting an emotional toll on both sides when in the end neither side really feels like the winner. About three-fourths of cases that go to trial end in the doctor's favor, but lawsuits are costly and physicians blame their patients' propensity to sue for changing how they practice. In response to a flurry of medical malpractice cases, the Florida Legislature in 2003 capped "pain-and-suffering" damages at $150,000 for emergency room patients and $500,000 for all others. Since then, one-third fewer cases have been filed, several insurance companies have returned to Florida and premiums have decreased (Pensa, Sun-Sentinel, April 20, 2008)

sun-sentinel.com

The backlash from a hepatitis C outbreak stemming from a Las Vegas endoscopy center's unsanitary practices could mean the end of voluntary ASC accreditation in Nevada (Outpatient Surgery, April 22, 2008)

According to news reports, state lawmakers are planning legislation requiring ASCs to be inspected by the Joint Commission, the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities or the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care.

Outpatient Surgery e-weekly

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:

• General issues in normative and applied medical ethics as relevant to the care of pain;
• Clinical ethical issues focal to under- and/or over- treatment of pain;
• Conceptual and practical issues related to informed consent;
• Conceptual and practical issues related to (institutional) review of (experimental, quasi- experimental and/or clinical) studies of pain assessment, and/or therapeutics;
• 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

Take advantage of ASIPP's online payment method to renew your dues. It's quick and easy just click on the link below and submit.

No password is required to renew. If you have questions or need assistance contact the ASIPP office at 270-554-9412 Ext. 208

Renew Membership

Massachusetts Society of Interventional Pain Physicians Annual Meeting

The Massachusetts Society of Interventional Pain Physicians Annual Meeting will take place on Saturday May 10, 2008 at the Marriott Boston Newton Hotel.

The meeting will include a luncheon and Dr. David Kloth will be a keynote speaker. A board meeting will take place immediately following the Annual Meeting.

Plans are still in progress but you may contact James Murphy at 508-824-0035 or jmurphy@pain-management-center.com

FSIPP Spring Newsletter

Read the news from the Florida State Society of Interventional Pain Physicians in the newly released Spring Newsletter.

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.

National Pain Institute — Florida

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

Interventional Pain Specialist — Paducah, KY and Marion, IL

Interventional Pain Medicine Physician — St. Cloud, Minnesota