·  ASIPP 11th Annual Meeting - Register Early and Save

·  RACs Free to Make the Call on Medical Necessity Rules

·  EMR Adoption Higher in States with Fewer Privacy Rules

·  Medicare Advantage comes under more scrutiny

·  Stimulus Package Alters HIPAA Rules

·  Health Spending Is Taking Up Bigger Chunk of National Purse

·  Sen Baucus Seeks Overhaul Of Medicare Payments To Doctors

·  No SGR Overhaul Likely for Early Years of Healthcare Reform

·  Prescriptions would be tracked under Fl bill

·  Coalition Report: VA Region Sees Prescription Drug-Death Pandemic

·  FDA Warns Consumers to Stop Using Hydroxycut Products

·  Physicians Wanted

ASIPP 11th Annual Meeting - Register Early and Save

The ASIPP Annual Meeting is the premier Educational Forum for Evidence-based Medicine for Interventional Pain Management! This is a first-time opportunity to learn about the importance of evidence-based medicine in IPM as it applies to you, your patients, and your practice. In addition, this year we offer an extensive program that covers the essential elements of practice management including extensive presentation on Billing and Coding.

Listen to our distinguished faculty and learn from these experts the cutting-edge research and the importance of guidelines, IPM techniques as they apply to evidence-based medicine. Discover many important "pearls" for Billing and Coding. Hear how you can run your ASC or office more efficiently through best practices. Interventional Pain Management is continually growing and evolving, and there is no better time to stay abreast of the field and learn about emerging issues.

We welcome and encourage all ASIPP members and guests to attend the 11th Annual Meeting. This program offers something for everyone; physicians, administrators, nurses, educators, etc. We also invite you to attend the ASIPP "Night at the Oscars" Business Dinner Meeting on Saturday evening. The night will hold dinner, awards, entertainment, and dancing.

On Tuesday we will bring Capitol Hill to you. Presentations will be made by many distinguished congressional and governmental speakers who will address how the changing economy and administration will affect healthcare and Interventional Pain Management in particular, MCAC, etc.

You won't want to miss the award winning 2009 ASIPP Annual Meeting! Join us on June 27-30, 2009, in Washington, DC.

Brochure

Online Registration

RACs Free to Make the Call on Medical Necessity Rules

Though you may consider the RACs to be like bounty hunters, the RACs are certainly NOT pirates - CMS will be holding them to the same rules that apply to current reimbursement administrators, carriers, Fiscal Intermediaries (FIs) and Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs). Healthcare Finance News, May 4, 2009)

Healthcare Finance News

EMR Adoption Higher in States with Fewer Privacy Rules

State laws in place to protect patients' confidentiality may be causing some hospitals to be more skittish about adopting electronic medical records systems, a factor that could impede the push for the industry to go paperless, a study says (Silva, American Medical News, May 4, 2009).

amednews.com

Medicare Advantage comes under more scrutiny

Private health insurance plans serving Medicare beneficiaries will be paid $11.4 billion more in 2009 than the traditional Medicare fee-for-service program, a new Commonwealth Fund study finds (Manos,, Healthcare Finance News, May 6, 2009).

The study comes as stakeholders debate the value of Medicare Advantage, a program that offers an HMO- type coverage for Medicare beneficiaries. President Barack Obama's 2010 fiscal year budget proposes to pay for health reform by slashing reimbursement to health plans participating in Medicare Advantage.

Healthcare Finance News

Stimulus Package Alters HIPAA Rules

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus bill, is notable for the $19 billion it offers for incentives to adopt and use health information technology. But it also expands the reach of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (Harris, American Medical News, May 4, 2009).

Specifically, the stimulus bill expands the reach of privacy and security rules implemented under HIPAA to cover business associates and covered entities.

amednews.com

Health Spending Is Taking Up Bigger Chunk of National Purse

Though the rise in healthcare spending has slowed, it's taking up a much bigger space in the nation's budget, says a new report from the California Healthcare Foundation (Clark, HealthLeaders Media, May 4, 2009).

The report showed that national healthcare spending reached $2.2 trillion, or $7,421 per person, in 2007 representing more than 16% of the gross domestic product. Continuing at the same pace, it will reach 20.3% of the country's gross domestic product by 2018.

HealthLeaders Media

Sen Baucus Seeks Overhaul Of Medicare Payments To Doctors

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Monday he's eyeing changes to the Medicare payment system for physicians that would in future years avoid short-term fixes to prop up the payments (The Wall Street Journal, May 4, 2009)..

Baucus, speaking in a conference call with reporters, said he expected the current payment system to stay in place for three years under his proposal to overhaul the U.S. health system. After that, Baucus said, Congress should allow payments under the system to drop, with the payments to be replaced by a new compensation system.

The Wall Street Journal

No SGR Overhaul Likely for Early Years of Healthcare Reform

Medicare's sustainable growth rate (SGR) system for setting reimbursements might see some tweaks across the next three years, but wholesale change is unlikely in the early years of healthcare reform, said Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) (Walker, Medpage Today, May 4, 2009).

Medpage Today

Prescriptions would be tracked under Fl bill

Florida is the largest of 12 states without a system to track prescription narcotics, and experts say this and the state's abundance of storefront pain management clinics draws addicts and pill suppliers from throughout the country. Legislators hope to change that this year by creating a prescription database for doctors, pharmacists and law enforcement, partly in response to criticism from other state governments that are tired of having their residents die of prescription overdoses with painkillers bought in Florida (Nelson, Fort Mill Times, April 29, 2009).

Fort Mill Times

Coalition Report: VA Region Sees Prescription Drug-Death Pandemic

In one year's time, 238 people died in Southwest Virginia from causes related to just four prescription drugs: Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Methadone and Fentanyl. That was 2006, the most recent data available, and it represents a threefold increase from a decade earlier (McCown, Bristol Herald Courier, April 30, 2009).

Bristol Herald Courier

FDA Warns Consumers to Stop Using Hydroxycut Products

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers to immediately stop using Hydroxycut products by Iovate Health Sciences Inc., of Oakville, Ontario and distributed by Iovate Health Sciences USA Inc. of Blasdell, N.Y. Some Hydroxycut products are associated with a number of serious liver injuries. Iovate has agreed to recall Hydroxycut products from the market.

.

FDA

Physicians Wanted

Visit the ASIPP Web site to find available positions for IPM physicians.

Physicians Wanted