Documentation for Dummies

Comprehensive Review Course and Cadaver Workshop

Healthcare Bill - Continue to Write Congress and White House

Justice Department Announces Largest Health Care Fraud Settlement in its History

Many Baby Boomers are Continuing Illicit Drug Use into Their Later Years According to New Analytic Publication

Minimally Invasive, Incremental Approach To EMRs

Debit Cards Reward Medicaid Patients For Care

Medicaid System to Detect Fraud, Waste, and Abuse is Full of Holes

Doctor Survey: Many to Stop Treating Medicaid Patients

Warnings Issued about Bogus Board Certifications

Illinois Society Annual Meeting Oct. 6

Physicians Wanted

Documentation for Dummies

Just 12 more days to take advantage of early registration discounts. Documentation for Dummies course offers extensive and detailed sessions on coding for interventional pain management. This is a opportunity for you and your staff to gain new information and also to get answers for your troubling coding questions. Register

This course will be held on Oct. 9-11 in Memphis, TN at the the historic Peabody Hotel and will focus on the more practical aspects of coding and billing and the correct way to document medical necessity and indications.

The lectures will be given by the most experienced in the field. You will be taken through the proper evaluation and management services and documentation step-by-step process, leading to an algorithmic approach to interventional pain management.

This is a course you can't afford to miss!

Course details can be found online. Brochure

Comprehensive Review Course and Cadaver Workshop

Register today for the Comprehensive Review Course and Cadaver Workshop in Interventional Pain Techniques will provide an opportunity for hands-on instruction in basic, intermediate or ABIPP Part II examination preparation.

The course will be held on October 9-11 in Memphis, TN at the historic Peabody Hotel and the world famous Medical Education and Research Institute.

With the choice of multiple experience levels, this course is ideal for those with more basic skills desiring to develop new skill to those more experienced who are preparing to take the ABIPP Part II examination.

Space is limited in each level so early registration is encouraged.

Healthcare Bill - Continue to Write Congress and White House

We know most everyone has strong opinions and great fears regarding the pending healthcare bill. We caution you to pay close attention to the bill; the progress, proposals, and debates.

There are some good aspects to the bill but unfortunately there are many bad aspects that could have dire consequences to our specialty of interventional pain management and the nation in general. Because of this, we urge you to contact Congress immediately and ask your government officials to say "no" to the healthcare bill as it is currently written.

Once again we have provided you a Capwiz link to send your message. While we provide sample text for those who chose to use it, the letter is editable and you should feel free to change it as you desire. The important thing is to let Congress know how you feel about the bill.

Capwiz link for physicians: http://www.capwiz.com/a sipp/issues/alert/alertid=13785876&type=ML

We also encourage you to get staff, patients and family to get involved. We have provided a link appropriate for non-physicians as well.

Capwiz link for non-physicians: http://www.capwiz.com/asipp/issues/alert/?alertid=13805151&type=ML

Justice Department Announces Largest Health Care Fraud Settlement in its History

Pfizer To Pay $2.3 Billion For Fraudulent Marketing WASHINGTON - American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc. (hereinafter together "Pfizer") have agreed to pay $2.3 billion, the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the Department of Justice, to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical products, the Justice Department announced today.

Pharmacia & Upjohn Company has agreed to plead guilty to a felony violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act for misbranding Bextra with the intent to defraud or mislead. Bextra is an anti-inflammatory drug that Pfizer pulled from the market in 2005. Under the provisions of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, a company must specify the intended uses of a product in its new drug application to FDA. Once approved, the drug may not be marketed or promoted for so-called "off-label" uses - i.e., any use not specified in an application and approved by FDA.

Pfizer promoted the sale of Bextra for several uses and dosages that the FDA specifically declined to approve due to safety concerns. The company will pay a criminal fine of $1.195 billion, the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States for any matter. Pharmacia & Upjohn will also forfeit $105 million, for a total criminal resolution of $1.3 billion.

Many Baby Boomers are Continuing Illicit Drug Use into Their Later Years According to New Analytic Publication

Many baby boomers (Americans in the generation born between 1946 and 1964) are continuing to use illicit drugs as they grow older, causing the rate of illicit drug use to go up within the 50 to 59 year old age segment of the population. According to a new analytical publication produced by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), those aged 50 to 59 reporting use of illicit drugs within the past year has nearly doubled from 5.1 percent in 2002 to 9.4 percent in 2007 while rates among all other age groups are statistically staying the same or decreasing.

An Examination of Trends in Illicit Drug Use among Adults Aged 50 to 59 in the United States is the first in a series of new scientific reports being published periodically by SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies that will provided detailed analyses on important substance abuse and mental health issues challenging the nation.

Minimally Invasive, Incremental Approach To EMRs

With the stimulus incentive deadline for adoption of e-healthcare records quickly approaching, rising healthcare costs, and the increasing need to access patient data at multiple locations, there's no doubt that most healthcare IT professionals and physicians are planning to quickly and cost effectively embrace EHR technology in their organizations.

Before diving into the implementation process, careful planning is imperative. Based on what I've seen from other practices, if you don't analyze your options in detail, your greatest fears of practice workflow upheaval will likely come to fruition. I suggest that beginning with an honest assessment of your practice:

Evaluate individual practitioners' comfort levels and tolerance for change, as well as their thoughts on investment levels and technology use Assess your objectives. Are you interested in reducing staff? Improving reporting capabilities? Reducing errors? Eliminating duplication? Qualifying for stimulus money? All of the above? Look at practice workflow. How does work get done in your office? Does it vary by location? Is it different for each practitioner, or does your office employ a uniform approach? Determine who will use the technology. Plan on forming a cross-functional IT team. Clinicians need to be part of the selection and implementation process, as well as nurses and administrators.

Debit Cards Reward Medicaid Patients For Care

Medicaid System to Detect Fraud, Waste, and Abuse is Full of Holes

With serious implications for the government's ability to detect fraud, waste, and abuse in the Medicaid system, an Office of Inspector General report found a lack of timeliness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness of the federal database used for that purpose.

http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-04-07-00240.pdf

Key problems were found with the Medicaid Statistical Information System's (MSIS) tolerance for errors in the data submitted, which allowed certain claims filed by states seeking reimbursement "to clear quality review with an unknown number of errors," the report said. Error tolerance levels were frequently adjusted upward to allow 100% of errors to slip through so the claim could pass through quality review.

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Doctor Survey: Many to Stop Treating Medicaid Patients

Louisiana State Medical Society survey released Monday found many physicians will stop treating or accept no new Medicaid patients because of a recent 10 percent cut in the money they receive to care for the poor.

Two-thirds of those responding to an e-mail survey of society members said the cuts would prompt the changes in their practices

The Medicaid reimbursement reductions were adopted as part of the Jindal administration's budget-balancing process for the fiscal year that began July 1. There was a $1.3 billion revenue shortfall projected. The heaviest cuts came in health care and higher education.

Warnings Issued about Bogus Board Certifications

Connecticut's attorney general is investigating a complaint about mail-order geriatrics certifications. Schemes have also involved other medical specialties.

The American Geriatrics Society is warning that an entity calling itself the American College of Geriatrics is selling a fraudulent board certification through the mail. The geriatric certification being offered is not recognized by the AGS or the American Board of Medical Specialties and its member specialty boards, the AGS said in a notice posted on its Web site http://www.americangeriatrics.org/news/american_board_of_geriatric_medicine.shtml

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