June 24, 2009
Register Today for the New Orleans Board Review Course |
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The 2009 ASIPP Board Review Course will be held on August 11 -15 in New Orleans. The ABIPP Part I Examination will take place on August 16 following the review course. Online registration for the review course is now available. You must submit an application to sit for the ABIPP Part I Exam.
This intensive review course is designed to present interventional pain physicians with an in-depth review of multiple areas of interventional pain management. The course will feature many nationally known experts in IPM, controlled substance, billing and coding, healthcare law, and other areas.
The course will be held at the Astor Crowne Royal. A discounted room rate of $109 is available until July 10. Call 504-962-0500 and tell them you are booking under the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.
Brochure
Register Online Today! |
Comprehensive Review Course Registration Now Open |
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Online registration is now open for the 2009 Comprehensive Review Course and Examinations in Coding, Compliance, and Practice Management & Controlled Substance Management.
The course will be held at the Astor Crowne Plaza in New Orleans on Aug. 11 - 16. This intensive review course is a CME activity to prepare physicians seeking competency certification and to provide interventional pain management specialists and other healthcare providers an in-depth review of multiple areas of interventional pain management.
The Controlled Substance Management course will be held on Aug. 11-12 with an optional exam on Aug. 13. The Coding, Compliance, and Practice Management section will begin on Aug. 14-15. The examination for this section will be held on Aug. 16.
For brochure, registration and hotel information go to ASIPP Meetings.
Register Online |
Gov. signs Florida legislation aimed to halt abuses of pain pills |
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Sidestepping critics who say it won't solve Florida's pill-mill problem, Gov. Charlie Crist signed long-fought legislation Thursday designed to crack down on clinics and doctors who dole out excessive narcotic painkillers -- mainly in South Florida (LaMendola | South Florida Sun Sentinel (LaMendola, South Florida Sun Sentinel, June 18, 2009).
The law will force pain clinics, pharmacies and doctors selling pain drugs to log every prescription into a statewide computer database, where the medical officials and police can detect drug dealers and addicts who go from office to office amassing hundreds of pills a day.
Synopsis of SB 462
Sun Sentinel |
Obama proposes law requiring Congress to find health spending offsets |
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Statutory pay-as-you-go rules that would require lawmakers to find money that covers the full cost of nearly all new entitlement expansions and tax cuts recently received a big push from President Obama. (Silva, American Medical News, June 22, 2009).
On June 9, Obama delivered a proposal to Congress that would compel lawmakers to find offsets for health spending increases or other priorities rather than run up deficit spending. Although Democratic leaders have pledged to follow the pay-go principle, the current level of deficits inherited from the previous administration makes a more official legislative commitment necessary, he said.
amednews.com |
MedPAC: Medicare Must Reinvent Its Payment Sytems to Improve Quality, Save Money |
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A low-profile commission that advises Congress on Medicare has renewed its call for lawmakers to reinvent from the ground up the way doctors, hospitals and other providers are paid.
The commission's annual report, released today, repeated its 2008 recommendation, saying, "To increase value for beneficiaries and taxpayers, the Medicare program must overcome the limitations of its current payment systems." Back in 2006, the report described "perverse payment" and "fragmented delivery systems." Since then, little has changed, commission officials say (Weaver, Kaiser Health News, June 15).
Kaiser Health News |
Before buying an EMR system, learn from others' mistakes |
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If you talk to 10 physician practices after a major technology implementation, you'll likely get 10 different stories about the lessons they learned (Dolan, American Medical News, June 22, 2009).
So what is the biggest mistake? Experts say it's not listening to those doctors and learning from their experiences
amednews.com |
CMS issues scam altert |
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has become aware of a scam where perpetrators are sending faxes to physician offices posing as the Medicare carrier or Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC).
The fax instructs physician staff to respond to a questionnaire to provide an account information update within 48 hours in order to prevent a gap in Medicare payments. The fax may have the CMS logo and/or the contractor logo to enhance the appearance of authenticity.
Medicare FFS providers, including physicians, non- physician practitioners, should be wary of this type of request. If you receive a request for information in the manner described above, please check with your contractor before submitting any information. Medicare providers should only send information to a Medicare contractor using the address found in the download section of the CMS.gov website found at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNGenInfo/ or http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicareProviderSupEnroll . |
Is Your Practice Optimized for Online Success? |
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So your medical practice has a website. That's great! But the web is already more than 25-years old, and just being "on the web" isn't enough anymore. New advancements are made every day on the web, just like in medicine, and it's vital to the health of any practice to stay on top of patients' ever-changing needs (Fox, Physician News DIgest, June 3, 2009).
Physician News Digest |
Three Common Reasons Why Some Insurers Don't Pay Fast Enough |
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Health insurers are paying physicians 5% faster and denying 9% fewer medical claims than last year, but some payers still have a ways to go, most notably state Medicaid programs, according to athenahealth's fourth annual PayerView Rankings (Masterson, HealthLeaders Media, June 19, 2009)
HealthLeaders Media |
Opinion: Doctors' Pay, a Key to Health Care Reform |
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President Obama spoke to the American Medical Association this week to assure doctors that changes in health care would help them better serve patients. Many studies have shown that patient care and spending vary enormously from community to community, depending on local practices, which are largely determined by doctors (The New York Times, June 18, 2009).
The New York Times |
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Copyright © 2008
American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians ®
81 Lakeview Drive, Paducah, KY 42001
Phone 270.554.9412, Fax 270.554.5394
E-mail asipp@asipp.org
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