Every ASIPP member should take action against the looming 5% cut in Medicare payment which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2007. We must convince Congress to make this fix a priority in its final days. It is critical that every ASIPP member, along with their associates, staff, and family, contact their Representative and Senators—even if you have already sent messages or made calls—asking them to support legislation that would reverse payment cuts in 2007. This action is particularly critical since anesthesiology will take a 12% cut and radiology will be cut 16%.

The sooner Congress reverses the cut, the more likely the reversal will be retroactive to Jan. 1, so it is imperative we keep the momentum going. Revised sample letters are located on the ASIPP home page: www.asipp.org (to send on personalized letterhead), or you may send your congressional letters through Capwiz by the links below.

Physicians can also follow the link provided to the Capwiz Web site: http://capwiz.com/asipp/i ssues/alert/?alertid=9037126&type=CO Staff members and patients should follow this link for their letters: http://capwiz.com/asipp/i ssues/alert/?alertid=9037126&type=CO

It is critical that we not give up hope and abandon this fight - immediate action is needed. Without support of each and every physician in the country we won’t be able to survive. Please get your colleagues, staff, patients and friends to support these issues. Let congress hear from you today.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a strong advisory this week for methadone, a commonly prescribed pain medicine, warning patients and doctors that the drug can kill. The alert was provoked by reports of overdose deaths among patients who took the medicine to combat chronic pain, the FDA release said. In some patients, particularly new users or those switching from another narcotic pain medicine, methadone can slow breathing to a stop. The FDA warned that it also can cause dangerous changes in heartbeat.

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Few, if any, brand-name prescription medications are cheap. And for patients who need but cannot afford them, the quest for "free drugs" is fraught with frustrations.

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The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) mandated that the Secretary of Health and Human Services adopt a standard unique health identifier for health care providers. On January 23, 2004, the Secretary published a Final Rule that adopted the National Provider Identifier (NPI) as this identifier. All HIPAA covered healthcare providers, whether they are individuals or organizations, must obtain an NPI for use to identify themselves in HIPAA standard transactions. Once enumerated, a provider's NPI will not change. The NPI remains with the provider regardless of job or location changes. HIPAA covered entities such as providers completing electronic transactions, healthcare clearinghouses, and large health plans, must use only the NPI to identify covered healthcare providers in standard transactions by May 23, 2007. Small health plans must use only the NPI by May 23, 2008.

For more information on NPI, visit the CMS Web site.

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The American Medical Association has released the 2007 edition of the following publications:

• CPT® 2007 Professional
• AMA Physician ICD-9-CM 2007, Volumes 1 & 2 spiral

The AMA HCPCS 2007 Level II and CPT® Changes 2007 have not yet been released but may be preordered to reserve your copy.

Stay in compliance - order your copies today from the ASIPP Bookstore!

Cardinal Health recently committed to a Bronze Sponsorship of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians for 2007 making them ASIPP's newest sponsor.

WASHINGTON -- Despite Celebrex's well- documented link to higher heart risks, Pfizer Inc. wants permission to sell its painkiller to treat children as young as 2 who have arthritis.

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WASHINGTON -- Having won the election, Democrats may find it difficult to deliver on their campaign promise to save taxpayers' money by giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices for seniors. Although incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised to accomplish this in the first 100 legislative hours next year, House staffers say no firm plan is in place and predict hearings to explore options before action.

More than 12,800 people have accessed the article “A randomized, controlled trial of spinal endoscopic adhesiolysis in chronic refractory low back and lower extremity pain,” earning it a “highly accessed” flag on BioMed Central’s online journal, Anesthesiology. The article, authored by Laxmaiah Manchikanti, Mark V. Boswell, Jose J. Rivera, Vidyasagar Pampati, Kim S. Damron, Carla D. McManus, Doris E. Brandon and Sue R. Wilson, has been on the web site since Aug. 1, 2006. The “highly accessed” graphic appears on the journal’s table of contents and search results to identify those articles that have been especially highly accessed, relative to their age, and the journal in which they were published. See it at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471- 2253/5/10

Also “highly accessed” on BioMed Central is the May 2004 article “Prevalence of facet joint pain in chronic spinal pain of cervical, thoracic and lumbar regions” by Laxmaiah Manchikanti, Mark V. Boswell, Vijay Singh, Vidyasagar Pampati, Kim S. Damron and Carla D. Beyer. This article has been accessed by more than 27,000 people since it first appeared on BioMed Central. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471- 2474/5/15

You can also access the article, “Risk of whole body radiation exposure and protective measures in fluoroscopically guided interventional techniques: a prospective evaluation.” The article, written by Laxmaiah Manchikanti, Kim A. Cash, Tammy L. Moss, Jose Rivera, and Vidyasagar Pampati, was published in 2003, has been viewed over 11,600 times, and as the articles mentioned above, is available to open access on the BioMed Central Web site: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471- 2253/3/2

Many people with fibromyalgia – a debilitating pain syndrome that affects 2 to 4 percent of the population – have faced the question of whether the condition is real. Fibromyalgia often has been misdiagnosed as arthritis or even a psychological issue. Increasingly, though, the scientific knowledge about fibromyalgia is growing, and a new paper from the University of Michigan Health System says there are “overwhelming data” that the condition is real, is characterized by a lower pain threshold and is associated with genetic factors that can make some people more likely to develop fibromyalgia.

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