Posted by admin on August 4, 2010 under Healthcare, Prescription Drugs | 
The Hill Logo - ASIPP Blog
The Hill HealthWatch - ASIPP Blog
By Julian Pecquet – 06/28/10 07:56 PM ET
More than a hundred pain management specialists are in Washington this week to warn lawmakers about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.
The physicians — members of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) — want lawmakers to appropriate $55 million over the next five years to help states collect data on consumers who “doctor shop” and on physicians who over-prescribe or incorrectly prescribe pharmaceuticals.
“There are many states now where there are more young people who die from prescription drug abuse than die from car accidents — and that’s the first time in history,” said David Kloth, past president of the association and a Connecticut pain management doctor.
The physicians want Congress to reauthorize a 2005 bill providing grants to states that collect prescription drug information and share it with physicians and pharmacists — and law enforcement officials when there’s an investigation — while protecting patients’ privacy. Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), an original sponsor of the bill, is expected to introduce legislation shortly.
Despite widespread agreement that prescription drug abuse is a serious problem — the 2005 law passed by unanimous consent in the Senate and by voice vote in the House — finding money to fight the scourge has not been easy.
No funds were appropriated until last year, Kloth said, when the Obama administration set aside $2 million in the Federal Omnibus Spending bill for the program, known as the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting (NASPER).
Kloth said Capitol Hill sources have told ASIPP that Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) has blocked appropriations for the grants in the past. Rogers, the commonwealth’s former attorney general, supports a monitoring program that’s more focused on law enforcement and may fear NASPER would compete for funding, Kloth said.
Rogers’s office denied any blocking of grants and defended the lawmaker’s commitment to prescription drug abuse.
“Congressman Rogers has been a leader in the fight against the epidemic of prescription drug abuse for a decade, and while it’s true we disagree with the NASPER approach, to say the congressman has ‘blocked’ funding for the program is simply not true. If that were the case, the millions of dollars appropriated for the program over the years would not be established law today. Congressman Rogers believes NASPER is a duplicative program propped up by the pain physician lobby and six years too late. Instead, he has championed state-sponsored prescription drug monitoring programs, supported by the Department of Justice,” said Rogers’s spokeswoman Stefani Zimmerman.
To date, 41 states have monitoring programs in place, according to ASIPP, although six are not operational.
However, many states do not meet NASPER standards — failing, for example, to monitor prescriptions electronically; only covering certain drug categories; or giving pharmacies more than seven days to submit information.
Only two states — Kentucky and Connecticut — are attempting to share information among states, which ASIPP says is necessary to prevent drugs abusers from stocking up on pills in states such as Florida that have laxer standards.
“Fragmented funding of multiple unauthorized programs will only create confusion among states applying for funding,” ASIPP says in a fact sheet on the NASPER program, “as well as both [the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services] as they try to administer similar programs.”
The group is advocating for other issues as well:
• Healthcare reform: The law incorporates several provisions of the National Pain Care Policy Act, but they need to be appropriated. In particular, ASIPP wants funds allocated for an Institute of Medicine conference on pain next year and a training grant program for medical schools and other entities to educate and train healthcare professionals in pain care.
• Physician payments: A permanent repeal of Medicare’s Sustainable Growth Rate formula.
• Ambulatory Surgery Center payments: ASIPP wants higher reimbursement rates for surgical procedures performed outside of hospitals.
Posted by admin on under Healthcare |
Washington Post Logo - ASIPP Blog
Even as some of the first pieces of President Obama’s health care reform legislation take effect, Republicans in Congress and conservative activist groups are still working to repeal or at least rewrite major sections of the legislation.
Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, is circulating a petition that would force an up-or-down vote in the House of Representatives on repealing the vast bulk of the estimated $940 billion, 10-year legislation the Democratic-controlled Congress passed this spring.
The petition had 80 signatures as of Thursday – the same day the White House formally launched HealthCare.gov, which officials described as a “one-stop shopping” place for health insurance. Other parts of the law, including a new 10 percent excise tax on indoor-tanning services and a new stopgap program to cover Americans with pre-existing health conditions who can’t get private-sector coverage, also went into effect Thursday.
A second House “discharge” petition to force a vote over the opposition of the Democratic majority, offered by California Republican Rep. Wally Herger, calls for a full repeal and the passage of a substitute GOP plan.
Support for Mr. King’s proposal sharply increased this week as House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio and Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia joined the effort and the conservative Club for Growth informed lawmakers that the group would “score” their position on its influential legislative ranking.
“The American people asked Congress and President Obama not to pass the massive health care overhaul, and they were ignored,” said Mr. Boehner and Mr. Cantor. The two also said they could support Mr. Herger’s alternative.
The Republican Study Committee said Thursday at least five other straight repeal bills are in the House, all needing 218 signatures to advance.
The Heritage Foundation’s newly launched independent-advocacy wing, Heritage Action for America, also has a repeal effort. The group notes that most of the legislation’s major changes will not occur until 2013 and 2014 so there is still time to “bring the heat” and tell lawmakers “why you support a full repeal.”
Club for Growth spokesman Mike Connolly said if the repeal effort makes progress, the group would also expect lawmakers who voted against the legislation to “follow through and ultimately co-sponsor legislation in the next Congress.”
Though the economy and jobs will likely remain the key issues during the midterm elections, some Republican candidates – including Senate hopefuls Marco Rubio in Florida and Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania – have made repeal an important part of their campaigns.
Democrats, citing recent polls showing an uptick in popular support for the health plan, have at times appeared eager for a clash over repealing the health program, predicting the GOP blanket opposition will backfire at the polls.
“Some folks on the other side of the aisle … have said theyre going to run on a platform of repeal,” Mr. Obama said last month. “They want to go back to the system we had before. … Would you want to go back to discriminating against children with pre-existing conditions?”
The Democratic National Committee has already aired a 60-second cable television ad titled “We Can’t Afford to Go Back” slamming the repeal effort.
Despite an endorsement from the American Medical Association, many U.S. doctors say they still do not support the legislation.
A coalition of doctors urged Congress on Tuesday to protect them against provisions they fear will hurt their businesses and lower the quality of care of Americans.
Among the group’s primary concerns is that practicing doctors will be excluded from the law’s treatment-recommendation panel and that the new Independent Payment Advisory Board wields too much power and will make decisions based exclusively on cost.
“We’re worried about the [payment] board making decisions without considering a patient’s access to care and the effectiveness of care,” said Dr. Laxmaiah Manchikanti, chairman of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.
The 18-member board, include 15 full-time members, will make recommendations on Medicare and other health care costs without congressional approval. For example, the recommendations go into effect if Congress votes against them, but the president vetoes the vote and Congress cannot get the two-thirds majority vote to overturn the veto.
“We’ll have no recourse in Congress,” Dr. Manchikanti said.
In group’s joint-effort with the North American Neuromodulation Society, nearly 200 doctors came to Capitol Hill to call upon such top Republican Party lawmakers as Louisiana Sen. David Vitter and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.
However, the most solid promise Tuesday perhaps came from Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Ohio Democrat who voted for the multi-billion dollar reform legislation.
Mr. Brown vowed to circulate a petition asking the House and Senate to put working doctors on the treatment board, officially known as the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute. The 40-member nonprofit includes the National Institutes of Health director and 17 appointees by the General Accounting Office.
“A letter doesn’t get it accomplished, but it’s a start,” said Dr. David S. Kloth, a Connecticut doctor and ASIPP director.
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.
