Posted by admin on June 30, 2010 under Pain Treatment | 
ASIPP ASC Logo
As a pain management specialist, Scott Glaser, MD, works to help patients with chronic pain restore quality of life, increase function and regain wholeness. He has worked with his Pain Specialists of Greater Chicago co-founder Ira Goodman, MD, for over a decade, treating syndromes ranging from common lower back pain to the severe pain associated with nerve damage. The doctors use various minimally invasive techniques to manage pain, including small joint injections, nerve blocks and medication infusion pumps.
Dr. Glaser graduated from the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University School of Medicine and completed his anesthesia residency and fellowship at Northwestern University in Chicago. He has worked as a pain management specialist in the private practice setting since 1990 and was named to the Becker’s ASC Review list of notable ASC physicians in 2009.
Through his work in pain management, Dr. Glaser has become invested in the struggle against controlled substance misuse. He lobbied to ensure passage of the NASPER bill, which aims to protect patients and physicians from substance misuse by setting up prescription monitoring programs. The bill was signed into law in 2005, and Dr. Glaser continues to work to implement a prescription monitoring program in Illinois. He also speaks to physician groups and other health providers about the risks of controlled substance abuse.
In 2008, Dr. Glaser was elected by his fellow specialists to serve as a director on the national board of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. He also became a diplomat of the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians —acknowledged to be the highest level of credentialing in his field — the first year it was offered.
Dr. Glaser is an instructor for the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, a society that provides training for interventional pain management specialists and promotes excellence in the field of pain management. He teaches other physicians minimally invasive procedures and lectures on continuing medical education at ASIPP meetings.
Posted by admin on June 29, 2010 under Pain Treatment |
ASIPP WebMD
Your back is throbbing and has been for weeks. You can barely move from your bed, but you are not getting any sleep because of the intense pain.
This is a pretty common scenario, explains David Neumeyer, MD, the associate director of the Sleep Disorder Center at the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Burlington, Mass.
“Pain and sleep are integrally connected,” he says. “Chronic pain is very common in the population and even more common in people who have poor sleep, and it sort of becomes a vicious cycle.” Pain affects your ability to sleep, and the lack of sleep makes the pain seem worse.
The Link Between Pain and Sleep Problems
Exactly how the two conditions are connected varies from person to person. “You have to determine what is the chicken and what is the egg,” he says. “Is pain a manifestation of, or made worse by, a sleep disorder or is pain causing the poor quality of sleep?”
Charles Bae, MD, a neurologist in the Sleep Disorders Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, puts it this way: “Pain can be the main reason that someone wakes up multiple times a night, and this results in a decrease in sleep quantity and quality, and on the flip side, sleep deprivation can lower your pain threshold and pain tolerance and make existing pain feel worse.”
“If you have arthritis and roll or turn while you are sleeping, pain can wake you up,” says David S Kloth, MD, the founder, medical director, and president of Connecticut Pain Care in Danbury, and a past president of the American Society of Intervention Pain Physicians.
The first step is to figure out if the lack of sleep is causing pain or if the pain is causing a lack of sleep, and then you treat whichever came first, he says.
The Pain-Reducing Benefits of Better Sleep
Pain may not be the only problem interfering with your sleep. Some people may also have an underlying sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea. Neumeyer recommends an evaluation by a sleep specialist to be sure there is not underlying sleep disorder.
Once you’re correctly diagnosed, sleep experts say good treatment can significantly help those living with chronic pain.
Getting better quality sleep — and more of it — may improve your pain threshold so you will ache less, says Neumeyer.
“People in pain don’t sleep, and people who sleep have less pain,” agrees Michael Breus, PhD, author of Beauty Sleep and the clinical director of the sleep division for Arrowhead Health in Glendale, Ariz.
Treating Pain-Related Sleep Problems
Improving sleep in people with chronic pain such as low back pain, arthritis, fibromyalgia, and diabetic nerve pain is difficult because these individuals often don’t want to take any more drugs, says Breus.
These individuals are often already taking several medications to treat their pain disorder. What’s more, certain prescription sleeping pills may interact with their pain medications, so they couldn’t take them even if they wanted to, says Breus.
In essence, Breus becomes the Sherlock Holmes of sleep problems. He looks at each individual’s sleep habits and bedroom environment. “I have to investigate how old their mattress and pillows are, and make sure they are offer proper support,” he says. He asks about their diet and habits. Do they avoid beverages with caffeine after 2 p.m.? Do they exercise regularly? Do they use the bedroom only for sleep and sex? All these things may also help people in pain get their ZZZs.
The bottom line, according to Cleveland Clinic’s Bae, is “if you have chronic pain and trouble sleeping, bring it up to your doctor to see if anything can be done to help your sleep while getting your pain treated.”
Posted by admin on June 28, 2010 under Prescription Drugs |
ASIPP
They’re often called doctor shoppers, border hoppers, pharm-aholics and even hit-and-runners. They count on states’ lack of communication and exploit professionals whose job is to heal, hurting themselves and feeding others’ addictions through such feats.
They’re prescription painkiller addicts and, like other drug addicts, often go to extreme measures to get their fix. It’s not a new problem, just one that’s recently become more visible with high-profile celebrity deaths being caused by prescription pill overdoses.
“The least fun part of my job is managing medications,” said Connecticut-based pain physician Dr. David Kloth, who referred to Michael Jackson — formerly the King of Pop — as the King of Drug Popping. “You are suspicious of everybody — it’s sad, but everyone is painted with the same broad brush.”
It may be sad, but it’s what doctors face every day. Pain pill-related deaths have risen significantly over the years, with overdose deaths becoming the second leading cause of unintentional injury death in 2002, just behind motor-vehicle injuries, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study. This increased death rate stems from prescription drugs known as opioid analgesics — powerful, addictive drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin that produce heroin-like effects — that were increasingly prescribed in the 1990s to treat pain.
“Their potential for misuse was underestimated, and opioid analgesics quickly became the most popular category of abused drugs,” the CDC report stated.
In an attempt to track patients’ prescriptions and prevent double dipping between doctors — and states – many states have created prescription drug monitoring programs through federal funding sources. As it stands, 41 states have passed laws to create some type of program, but some states with multiple nearby neighbors — like Maryland, Arkansas and Nebraska — don’t have any such law or bills pending.
“You need to know this information when you have a patient you’re concerned about,” Kloth said, adding that prescription drug abuse can often contribute to social ills such as divorce, child abuse and neglect. “The stories are endless.”
Under the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act (NASPER) — signed by President George W. Bush in 2005 — more than $50 million has been given to states to enact programs that allow doctors and other authorized users, like police, to access patient records. Though the NASPER legislation called for $50 million in funding, to date it has received $2 million as a result of denials by the Appropriations Committee.
The law’s aim is to have a coordinated national system that monitors an array of controlled substances — all those in Schedules II, III and IV (e.g., cocaine and anabolic steroids), as defined by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It permits states to exchange sensitive data with each other to deal with border hoppers, doctor shoppers and the like.
“Patients moving from one jurisdiction to another (as in cases involving Virginia, the District of Columbia and Maryland) will typically be able to obtain multiple prescriptions by merely crossing state lines,” a NASPER fact sheet stated. “The conscious and more prevalent unconscious misuse of Schedule II, II and IV controlled substances, are a national problem that cannot be effectively addressed on a state-by-state basis.”
But states are making progress toward implementing such monitoring programs, said Joanee Quirk, who runs the Nevada Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. “[States] have a common bond, but we all run our systems a bit differently,” she said.
Those differences can sometimes create strife between states, she said. For example, unlike many other states, Vermont doesn’t allow outside law enforcement agencies to access its system,
NASPER proponents are preparing to file for reauthorization of the bill with Congress, the effects of which should allow states to create (if they haven’t already) and standardize their programs, said American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians CEO Dr. Laxmaiah Manchikanti. “We are progressing toward better monitoring and it’s becoming more doctor-friendly,” he said.
Right now, Manchikanti, whose practice is in a small Kentucky town, has to tap into other states’ databases to get information on a patient, he said. While a national database is becoming a reality for Manchikanti, its full implementation could take up to 10 more years, he said.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office in 2002 reported that state monitoring programs do indeed provide an effective tool to stem the growing problem of illegal diversion of prescription drugs, and noted that they offer quick access to comprehensive information, which often deters abusers from doctor shopping within the state.
“Further, only a few programs operate proactively, while most operate reactively,” a NASPER fact sheet stated. “Incidents of drug diversion, however, are on the rise in neighboring states, indicating the problem is proliferating or shifting to states without monitoring programs.”
Such a program recently came in handy for Kloth, who, after hearing a litany of excuses from one patient — from running out of medication early, losing the bottle and saying his wife accidentally washed it — checked the state database and found the patient had seen 35 doctors and was prescribed medications at 25 pharmacies. “It’s very easy to get addicted to these medications,” Kloth said. “The drugs … will take hold of you.”
In Nevada — a typically transient state — the state prescription drug monitoring program is run by the state board of pharmacy and anyone who prescribes a controlled substance is required by law to report that information to them, said Quirk, who runs the program.
“The real key here is it is just a tool,” Quirk said. “We don’t want a doctor to base prescribing or not prescribing on these reports, but to look at the big picture.
“We don’t know the big picture, but the doctor may,” she said. “That’s why we have this incredible tool they can use.”
Posted by admin on June 27, 2010 under Prescription Drugs |
FROM: AMERICAN SOCIETY OF INTERVENTIONAL PAIN PHYSICIANS
81 LAKEVIEW DRIVE
PADUCAH, KY 42001
www.asipp.org
Rubenstein Public Relations
Contact: Adam Mazur / Tel: 212-843-8073
Email: amazur@rubensteinpr.com
Recent O.D. of Brittany Murphy and J&J Heiress Casey Johnson Underscores Need For Tougher Drug Monitoring
NEW YORK– January 15, 2010 – There is a grim fact that ties together the recent deaths of Clueless actress Brittany Murphy and heiress Casey Johnson, as well as last summer’s passing of “King of Pop” Michael Jackson and before that actor Heath Ledger. You could even go back to the real “King” Elvis Presley’s death (he’d have turned 75 this month if he were alive) – despite recent studies suggesting a decrease in non-medically administered prescription drug use, the number of Americans who die as a result of abuse is still alarmingly high.
And it’s no coincidence that it seems like another high profile person in this country is dying of matters related to the mismanagement of prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Xanax and Propofol – each and every week.
The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP), the organization which proposed the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act (NASPER), a bill that allows for nationwide drug monitoring to help stem the tide of rampant prescription drug abuse, is calling for much tougher drug monitoring, training and testing on a national level.
“Prescription drug abuse in this country is out of control and I can safely predict the list of high-profile deaths like Brittany Murphy and Casey Johnson is only going to get longer because too many people including regular citizens have had fairly easy access to this excess for far too long,” remarked Dr. David Kloth, ASIPP past president and board member. “Americans have to wake up and realize that we are facing a national epidemic that is killing our loved ones every day – not just celebrities and socialites.”
“The problem is not the medication alone, but rather those prescribing the drugs without adequate control and training and patients who abuse the medication and do not follow their doctors’ orders. That’s why we propose more rigorous standards and certification for physicians dispensing pain medication otherwise, patients will continue to abuse and the overdoses and deaths will continue to mount,” added Kloth.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, nearly 7 million Americans are abusing prescription drugs — more than the number abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, Ecstasy, and inhalants, combined and twenty-five percent of drug-related emergency department visits are associated with abuse of prescription drugs.
ASIPP says that physicians who prescribe pain medications need to be properly trained. These medications can only be prescribed by a physician with an active DEA license in the state within which they are working or prescribing. Additionally, patients must be informed about the dangers of over medicating, which can lead to a potentially fatal overdose.
About The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians
ASIPP’s mission statement is to promote the development and practice of safe, high quality, cost-effective Interventional Pain Management techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of pain and related disorders, and to ensure patient access to these interventions. Founded in 1998 by current CEO Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, ASIPP is a rapidly growing not-for-profit organization that supports the needs of physicians who practice Interventional Pain Management across the country.
Since its inception, the organization has had substantial impact on the practice of interventional pain medicine, resulting in an impressive list of major achievements. In 2005, ASIPP succeeded in passing The National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act (NASPER), which provides and improves patient access to quality care, and protects patients and physicians from the deleterious effects of controlled substance misuse, abuse and trafficking. ASIPP is headquartered in Paducah, KY and currently has over 5,000 members. For more information, visit www.asipp.org, call 212-843-8073 or email amazur@rubensteinpr.com.
Posted by admin on June 25, 2010 under Medicare |
ASIPP Wall Street Journal
By Shirley S. Wang
It’s no joke for doctors that today marks the day that Medicare’s 21% reimbursement pay cuts were to go into effect.
ASIPP Capital Building
Congress left for its Easter recess without voting to delay the scheduled April 1 start of lower payments to docs. The agency that oversees Medicare has effectively delayed the cuts by deciding not to pay claims for the first 10 business days in April. When Congress returns, it’s still expected to adopt another law to delay the cuts for longer, as it has done annually for years now.
So what does the delay in paying claims mean for doctors? In the short-term, their cash flow shouldn’t be disrupted much, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Typically claims are paid no sooner than 14 calendar days anyway, so doctors shouldn’t see a dip in their income unless Congress fails to act with a new delay in the next two weeks, the agency says.
But the long-standing threat of Medicare cuts are weighing on doctors, say medical societies.
“It’s tough,” Andrew LaMar, spokesman for the California Medical Association, told the Health Blog. “Imagine if every month you didn’t know what your paycheck is going to be.”
The American Medical Association and others urged repeatedly for a permanent repeal of Medicare cuts throughout the health-care bill legislative process, but it wasn’t included as part of the final bill.
David Kloth, past president of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, told the Health Blog that private insurers base their rates on those set by Medicare, so a cut in Medicare payments would likely result in reimbursement cuts across the board. And if their revenue drops significantly, docs may reduce the number of Medicare patients they see or have to lay off employees, he says.
“If they’re not careful, they’re going to drive doctors out of Medicare and Medicaid,” says Kloth.
Photo: Associated Press
Posted by admin on June 17, 2010 under Healthcare |
FROM:
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF INTERVENTIONAL PAIN PHYSICIANS
81 LAKEVIEW DRIVE
PADUCAH, KY 42001
www.asipp.org
Rubenstein Public Relations
Contact: Adam Mazur Tel: 212.873.8073
Email: amazur@rubensteinpr.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF PHYSICIANS RAILS AGAINST OBAMACARE’S COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS RESEARCH
Practicing Doctors Warn About Increased Government
Control of Private Medical Decisions
PADUCAH, KY, APRIL 9, 2010 – A leading national medial society with thousands of physician members is again speaking out against the newly passed healthcare reform legislation, particularly the creation of a single panel that will be charged with determining insurance carriers’ coverage decisions for treatment of patients nationwide.
ASIPP, The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, is strongly opposed to a provision in the law for the creation of the new non-profit organization called the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. The institute, comprised of a 19-member board of directors chosen by the U.S. Comptroller General, is expected to begin meeting within the next six months and will be comprised of methodologists and statisticians rather than actively practicing clinicians. Current plans do not include the use of physician experts or medical societies related to the field under review.
Dr. David Kloth, board member, past president and national spokesman for ASIPP says, “This is perhaps the prime example of how the government will come between patients and their doctor.”
ASIPP says this will result in continued and increased healthcare rationing and that the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute will wield too much control over the private medical decisions of individuals, including determining both the clinical and cost effectiveness of procedures, treatments, drugs and medical devices. The society believes this will be extremely damaging to the cutting-edge developments across the entire spectrum of medicine. Such government guidelines and authority in health care will result in a centralized decision-making process, ASIPP says. The scenario is similar to the counterproductive and flawed system practiced in the United Kingdom for decades and where many common chronic pain treatments are now denied coverage.
“The most important aspect of establishing any type of guidelines is that there are practicing physicians who have the hands-on knowledge working in tandem with those who understand and can analyze the research (methodologists),” added Dr. Kloth. “Without the expertise of both, based on our recent experience, the guidelines will be overly restrictive and not in the best interest of our patients.”
ASIPP agrees that health care reform is mandatory for the country but is very concerned with many aspects of the new laws. Rather than exercise a monopoly over health care coverage decisions, ASIPP believes that the government should encourage and incorporate input from practicing physicians, researchers and policy makers alike.
ASIPP says that if the government’s goal is to ultimately reduce the amount of waste, fraud and abuse in the U.S. healthcare system, the answer isn’t the rationing of medicine by an appointed panel but to work with actively practicing doctors who know the treatments and can help create ethical and appropriate treatment coverage guidelines.
For interviews with David Kloth, MD, national spokesman for the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) please call (212) 843-8073 or email amazur@rubensteinpr.com.
About The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians
ASIPP’s mission statement is to promote the development and practice of safe, high quality, cost-effective interventional pain management techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of pain and related disorders, and to ensure patient access to these interventions. Founded in 1998 by current CEO Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, ASIPP is a rapidly growing not-for-profit organization that supports the needs of physicians who practice Interventional Pain Management across the country.
Since its inception, the organization has had substantial impact on the practice of interventional pain medicine, resulting in an impressive list of major achievements. In 2005, ASIPP succeeded in passing The National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act (NASPER), which provides and improves patient access to quality care, and protects patients and physicians from the deleterious effects of controlled substance misuse, abuse and trafficking. ASIPP is headquartered in Paducah, KY and currently has over 4,000 members. For more information, visit www.asipp.org or call 270.554.9412. Ext. 215.
Posted by admin on June 16, 2010 under Back Pain |
Bradenton.com
New way to relieve back pain, Bradenton doctor’s innovation gives woman new sensation
By TIMOTHY R. WOLFRUM – twolfrum@bradenton.com
Tara Dudash remembers vividly the day the pain disappeared.
The 36-year-old Sarasota resident said she had suffered debilitating lower back pain for 12 years before she met Dr. Nilesh Patel of Bradenton’s Coastal Pain Management and Rehabilitation.
Dudash had been to countless physicians — “I have more doctors in my phone than I have friends on speed dial,” she said — and tried everything from medication to massage.
TIFFANY TOMPKINS-CONDIE / ttompkins@bradenton.com Tara Dudash, a 36-year-old Bradenton accountant was relieved of debilitating back pain by a procedure performed by Dr. Nilesh Patel called Cooled Radiofrequency Denervation.
She said she once attached four electrical nerve stimulators to her back simultaneously in an effort to relieve the pain that required her to change positions every 20 minutes and made deep sleep nearly impossible.
When Patel told her “I can fix you,” Dudash said she “almost laughed in his face.”
But in October 2008, two days after Patel performed a new procedure he helped innovate, a dubious Dudash said she felt a new sensation.
No sensation.
“I was driving home from work, and I felt really weird,” Dudash said. “I actually turned down the radio and thought, ‘Why do I feel so odd?’ I realized I didn’t have any pain.
“It was an unrecognizable feeling. … It was kind of like receiving a miracle.”
Dudash suffered from severe pain on the right side of her lower back in the sacroiliac joint, where two major bones of the pelvis, the ilium and sacrum, meet.
To relieve the pain, Patel performed a cooled radiofrequency denervation, an outpatient surgery that consists of placing a small electrode in the affected area and ablating, or destroying, the nerves.
The innovative aspect of the procedure is the cooling, done through water circulation that surrounds the electrode. Cooling the area around the electrode allows the heat to travel farther and affect more of the nerves without destroying nearby tissue.
Patel, a member of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, was one of the pioneers of the procedure when he was a staff member at the Cleveland Clinic.
“When we saw this technology, it made sense,” said Patel, who said the weather drew him from Cleveland to Bradenton six years ago. “This is the same technology they use for ablation of large tumors because it allows you to create a lesion of precise size.”
Because the nerves regenerate, Dudash will return to Coastal every nine months to a year to repeat the procedure. The first surgery relieved her pain for seven months, but the most recent procedure was done in June 2009.
Patel and his partners at Coastal, Dr. Andrew Gross and Dr. Gennady Gekht, are conducting a clinical trial of the procedure. The doctors are still recruiting five patients for the 51-member trial, which is free. Patel said the ideal candidate is someone who suffers from isolated, lower back pain on one side of the body.
Patel hopes a successful trial will help popularize the innovation.
“That’s the time when the switch goes on,” Patel said. “People wait for high-quality research before they adopt new technology. … Physicians tend to gravitate toward things that work.”
The procedure has worked for Dudash, who tried everything to dull the pain she felt beginning as a business finance student at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
“I was 20-something. Nobody really pays attention to anything when they’re 20-something,” she said. “They think it’s going to go away. It didn’t. It just slowly, gradually got worse. Nobody could find anything wrong with me.”
Because of the pain, it took Dudash eight years to graduate from USF. When she met new people, she told them about her back troubles so they would know why she was sometimes short with them.“I just accepted this was how my life was going to be,” she said. “I was starting to crack. It was getting unbearable. If a pet was hurting that much, we would euthanize it.”
Now, Dudash is living an active life. She co-owns Water Designs of Sarasota, a swimming pool design company, with her husband, Joe, and is a part-time accountant. She wears high-heeled shoes and regularly exercises, running on the beach.
“I have no excuses when it comes to swimsuit season,” she said.
Posted by admin on June 13, 2010 under Back Pain, Pain Treatment |
Common, but Treatable
If the mere thought of running out of ibuprofen sends you into a panic, you’re far from alone. One in four Americans—the majority of them women—get sidelined by an achy back, neck, head or joints. In a 2006 government survey, more than half of them reported their agony lasted three months or longer.
Chronic pain can affect our relationships and our job performance. But experts say there is no reason to wince through your days needlessly. “There are options available,” says Scott Glaser, M.D. of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. “We are now able to find the source of the pain, treat it and control it, and give individuals back their quality of life.” Find out how to treat the most common pain complaints.
Back Pain
There are two main causes. The sponge-like discs and joints between spinal vertebrae become injured or degenerated with daily wear and tear. Or the spinal nerves become compressed and inflamed from injury or conditions like arthritis. Dr. Glaser says “ice and heat applications are time-honored therapies” for chronic pain.
Other options include chiropractic treatments, physical therapy, massage and biofeedback. Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., author of Pain Free 1-2-3, recommends boswellia, willow bark and curcumin-based supplements, which have anti-inflammatory properties. If those methods don’t work, a pain specialist may suggest patches that deliver painkillers directly to area or medication injected into the joints between the vertebrae or the nerves. Heat treatments or electrical stimulation can also help. Back surgery should be a last resort because of long-term risks and the possibility of creating more pain.
Chronic Headaches
Everyone gets a headache now and then, but 15 percent of Americans get severe headaches, and they occur twice as often in women than men. Migraine, cluster and tension headaches are the three most common types, and they can be triggered by anxiety, stress or hormonal changes.
If you suffer from migraines, over-the-counter remedies such as Excedrin Migraine can help, says Dr. Teitelbaum, and daily doses of magnesium and vitamins B6 and B2 may help prevent them. Stronger drugs to treat migraine pain and relieve tension and cluster headaches are available by prescription. Inhaling pure oxygen, available in small canisters by prescription, can also relieve cluster headaches. And antidepressants can help prevent tension headaches.
A Sore Neck
The same factors that cause back pain contribute to neck pain—bulging spinal discs touch nerve endings, and suddenly shaking your head is next to impossible. Worse, upper neck pain can also trigger headaches, Dr. Glaser says. “The spine is simply a series of bones sitting on top of each other protecting the spinal cord and nerves,” Dr. Glaser says, “Every joint where these bones touch is capable of being a source of pain.”
If neck pain is associated with headache, chiropractic care can help release the muscles that cause most tension headaches. Medications used to treat the headache can also offer relief. As with lower back pain, minimally invasive procedures to deaden nerve endings or deliver medications are an option.
Facial Pain
Facial pain has many causes, from a toothache to more serious conditions like trigeminal neuralgia, when inflamed nerves cause shooting, stabbing pain in the face.
For simple tooth pain, over-the-counter pain killers can help until you can see your dentist. If the problem is in your jaw’s temporomandibular joint (TMJ), you can use ice packs and a bite guard at night that helps position the jaw correctly, relieving chronic pain. For trigeminal neuralgia, anticonvulsants and muscle relaxants are typically prescribed. In extreme cases, surgery to damage the nerve so it stops delivering pain messages may help, but often results in some facial numbness.
Fibromyalgia
People with fibromyalgia (mostly women) suffer fatigue, stiffness, joint tenderness, muscle pain and so-called “fibro fog” or memory problems. No one knows for sure what causes fibromyalgia, but some theories include traumatic events and repetitive injuries, as well as genetic factors.
Over-the-counter painkillers can help, as can antidepressants and drugs used to treat restless legs syndrome. Dr. Teitelbaum, who had fibromyalgia himself, recommends getting at least eight hours of sleep nightly; hormonal support to regulate thyroid, adrenal and reproductive hormones; treating infections, including anti-fungal treatments for infections such as Candida; proper nutrition and exercise.
Arthritis
The cartilage between joints erodes over time, causing pain that is the hallmark symptom of arthritis. There are two main forms of arthritis: Osteoarthritis, caused by aging and repetitive injury, and rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune condition that causes the body to attack its own healthy joints.
There’s no cure for arthritis, but anti-inflammatory painkillers like ibuprofen can help. Rheumatoid arthritis responds to anti-rheumatic drugs and corticosteroids. Exercise can also ease arthritis pain as it strengthens the muscles surrounding the joints and keeps the joints limber. Steroid injections into the joint or replacing the normal joint fluid with injections of medication also provide relief. Joint replacement surgery is also a popular treatment for severe arthritis in the hip and knee.
Seeking Treatment for Pain
All too often, people grin and bear it when it comes to pain, says Dr. Glaser, which can make it worse. “We tend to see patients a year after they’ve injured their back,” he says. “That makes it much harder to treat. Patients that come to me a month after they start hurting have a much higher success rate.”
If you’re in pain, talk to your primary care doctor. If conservative treatments aren’t working, Dr. Teitelbaum recommends seeking a pain specialist through the American Academy of Pain Management. “Pain is like the flashing red oil light on your dashboard,” he says. “It’s your body’s way of saying something needs attention.”
Posted by admin on June 12, 2010 under Medicare |
FROM:
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF INTERVENTIONAL PAIN PHYSICIANS
81 LAKEVIEW DRIVE
PADUCAH, KY 42001
www.asipp.org
Rubenstein Public Relations
Contact: Adam Mazur Tel: 212.873.8073
Email: amazur@rubensteinpr.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF PHYSICIANS SAYS MEDICARE CUTS WILL FORCE DOCS TO CLOSE PRACTICES
Huge Physician Payment Cuts Expected April 1
PADUCAH, KY, MARCH 31, 2010 – A leading national society of doctors is saying that many physicians will cease to actively practice or at the very least, drop Medicare over large pending payment cuts.
ASIPP, the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, is speaking out against Congress, currently in the midst of its two-week spring recess, for not taking action to stop the fast-approaching cut. The Senate intends to hold a cloture vote after the recess which, if supported by 60 senators, will allow for a vote on the legislation that could occur as early as April 12.
The U.S. Senate held a floor debate on H.R. 4851 that would extend a number of expiring programs through April. That bill, which had already passed the House, includes a 30-day extension of the current Medicare physician payment rates, postponing, once again, the 21.3 percent cut scheduled to take effect in 2010.
Since Congress failed to act yet again, the 21.3 percent Medicare physician payment cut will take effect on April 1. The Center for Medicare Services (CMS) will make an announcement about their plans for handling claims starting April 1 but based on its past course of action, CMS will likely hold payments, rather than reprocessing millions of potential claims if Congress takes action when they return from recess.
“Congress seems to be intent on advancing a potentially harmful situation that is wreaking havoc with physicians’ practices,” said Dr. David Kloth, board member, past president and national spokesman for ASIPP. “Should Congress fail to act responsibly, almost every physician I have spoken with is either dropping Medicare or at least considering that option or worse, may just stop practicing completely.”
Among the startling results yielded by one recent study of over 250 actively practicing doctors who were questioned about the proposed 21.3 % Medicare cuts:
• 41 % said they will stop taking new Medicare patients,
• 24 % will stop taking Medicare patients entirely,
• Well over 50 % will defer the purchase of information technology, in effect, spurning a widely publicized federal tax incentive,
• 42 % of the doctors surveyed said they will layoff staff.
ASIPP strongly believes that health care reform is mandatory for the country but strongly disagrees with many aspects of the new legislation.
“If these cuts are allowed to go through many doctors will simply shut down their practices,” adds Kloth. “So it won’t matter that 30 million more people will receive health insurance because we will have far less doctors available to treat them.”
For interviews with David Kloth, MD, national spokesman for the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) please call (212) 843-8073 or email amazur@rubensteinpr.com.
About The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians
ASIPP’s mission statement is to promote the development and practice of safe, high quality, cost-effective interventional pain management techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of pain and related disorders, and to ensure patient access to these interventions. Founded in 1998 by current CEO Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, ASIPP is a rapidly growing not-for-profit organization that supports the needs of physicians who practice Interventional Pain Management across the country.
Since its inception, the organization has had substantial impact on the practice of interventional pain medicine, resulting in an impressive list of major achievements. In 2005, ASIPP succeeded in passing The National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act (NASPER), which provides and improves patient access to quality care, and protects patients and physicians from the deleterious effects of controlled substance misuse, abuse and trafficking. ASIPP is headquartered in Paducah, KY and currently has over 4,000 members. For more information, visit www.asipp.org or call 270.554.9412. Ext. 215.
