The online registration and brochure are now available for the upcoming Spinal Cord Stimulation and Intrathecal Implantable Infusion Systems Review Course and Cadaver Workshop.

The course will be held on Oct 24-26 in Memphis, TN at the Westin Memphis Beale Street and the Medical Education Research Institute (MERI). The course is a CME activity that will cover all aspects of spinal cord stimulation and intrathecal implantable infusions systems, through didactics, extensive case discussions, faculty interaction and hands-on instruction.

Whether you have practiced spinal cord stimulation for many years or you are new to this procedure with only basic skills, you will find this course to be beneficial to you in building or refreshing your skills.

Take advantage of the early registration discount by registering before September 30. For more information go to http://www.a sipp.org/meetings.htm

Doctors and health insurers are taking issue with the government's proposed schedule for converting to a new system for coding diagnoses and treatments (Ferris, govhealthit.com, Aug. 19, 2008)

Representatives of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), the American Medical Association and America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) said today that the three-year transition the Health and Human Services Department has proposed for transitioning from International Classification of Diseases Version 9 to ICD-10 is not long enough.

Doctors attribute reduced medical liability insurance rates and an influx of specialists to the caps enacted five years ago. A legal challenge threatens to undo the reforms (Sorrel, AMNews, Sept. 8, 2008 issue).

The decision by CMS to move ASCs to the new Medicare payment system created numerous opportunities and challenges for reimbursement. Add this major changes to the many issues ASCs were already facing, and getting the payments you want, and rightly deserve and earn, from both Medicare and third-party payors, is no easy task. Here are 27 tips to help you make the most of your reimbursement opportunities and overcome the challenges you face (Kurtz, Becker's ASC Review, Aug. 21, 2008).

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The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) is undertaking a national public relations campaign targeted toward informing the millions of Americans who suffer from chronic pain about the relatively new and often confusing specialty of Interventional Pain Management (IPM).

It is our objective to promote a basic understanding of the various modalities and benefits our specialty can offer, and to demonstrate what it is that makes IPM physicians unique in their approach to the treatment and elimination of chronic and/or acute pain.

ASIPP believes that educating the national media, the general public, payors and even other physicians about new and emerging therapies in this rapidly expanding field is the logical and necessary next step for our specialty. We hope you will support this effort by making a contribution to the campaign.

Watch for more information on this important campaign as more plans are made and the details unfold.

We are currently seeking submissions to the upcoming Pain Physician special issue. Specifically, we are seeking reviews and original submissions on health policy and ethics. We are looking for submissions that provide up-to-date critical information and comprehensive reviews.

All papers submitted for publication are subject to peer review. The emphasis in this special issue should be of practical importance to the interventional pain management community. However, scientific papers or reviews are welcome for regular issues of Pain Physician. Reviews from health care policy specialists and non-clinicians are accepted and welcome.

Should doctors be required to undergo special education in order to prescribe powerful narcotics? The Food and Drug Administration may soon recommend that they do so, though such a move would most likely prove controversial (Meier, The New York, Aug 16, 2008).

"I think it is a good idea, and it is something we are considering," said Dr. Bob Rappaport, the director of the division of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Rheumatology Products at the F.D.A. But the agency itself does not have the authority to take such a step, Dr. Rappaport said.

Some 4.3 million Americans take opioids regularly, and 10 million adults take them in any given week, researchers found (Phend, MedPage Today, Aug. 9, 2008).

These estimates were based on a prevalence of 2% and 4.9%, respectively, among respondents to a random telephone survey reported by Judith Parsells Kelly, of Boston University, and colleagues, in the Aug. 31 issue of Pain.

In 1989, the U.S. Department of Justice tried but failed to prevent a merger between nonprofit Carilion Health System and this former railroad town's other hospital. The merger, it warned in an unsuccessful antitrust lawsuit, would create a monopoly over medical care in the area (Carreyrouu, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 28, 2008).

Nearly two decades later, the cost of health care in the Roanoke Valley -- a region in southwestern Virginia with a population of 300,000 -- is soaring. Health- insurance rates in Roanoke have gone from being the lowest in the state to the highest.

Illinois Society of Interventional Pain Physicians will hold an dinner lecture on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 6 p.m., at Nick's Fishmarket in Rosemont, IL

The meeting will feature a dinner lecture by Dr. David Schultz, ASIPP President, speaking on "Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Pain - the Current and Future Trends".

Invitation

A case concerning disability benefits could have important ramifications for how health benefits are administered as well.

Read abstract - full text available through subscription.

ASIPP is now offering a new feature for those who advertise on our Positions Wanted section of the ASIPP Website. As a service to our advertisers and our members, please find the link to each current job posting.

Fellows hip Trained Physician - Northwest Indiana

Out patient Interventional Pain Physician - Atlanta, Georgia

Pain Management Opportunity - Pennsylvania

Entrepre neurial Opportunity - Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Florida Opportunities

Pain Medicine Fellowship Program Opportunity

BC/ BE Physiatrist - Shrewsbury, New Jersey

Part nership Opportunity - Milwaukee, Wisconsin

100% Pain Practice - Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Natio nal Pain Institute - Florida

Interv entional Pain Specialist - Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

MAYO CLINIC - Cardiac Anesthesiologist

Interven tional Pain Physiatrist Wanted - Nevada