Registration is open from now until April 30 for the ASIPP Poster Presentation to be held at the 14th annual meeting in Arlington, VA June 9-13.

Abstracts for poster presentations will be selected by the committee and winners will be notified by May 10. ASIPP will pay for meeting registration, and will provide poster stands and pins.

To enter, click HERE

The 10 stories that generated the largest number of online page views in 2011 gave insight into what was driving reader interest in an eventful year for medical news.

ASIPP is offering three different courses in one warm, wonderful, and scenic location! Join us on Februrary 24 at the beautiful Hilton Pointe Squaw Peak Resort in Phoenix, AZ.

The course choices are: Comprehensive Review Course and Cadaver Workshop with basic, intermediate, and ABIPP preparation (advanced) levels; Coding, Compliance and Practice Management Comprehensive Review Course (Feb 24-25) Competency Examination - (Feb 26); and Controlled Substance Management Comprehensive Review Course - (Feb 24-25) Competency Examination - (Feb 26)

Take this opportunity to not only break away from the cold but also earn CMEs. Consider comimg early or staying over. Bring your family and stay and play! Registration and Room Rate Discounts are available through February 2.

Brochure and Registration for Review Course and Cadaver Workshop

Coding, Complinace, and Practice Management brochure and registration

Controlled Substance Management brochure and registration

Effective from 01/01/2012 to 03/31/2012 . These new edits have been effective since Jan. 1, 2012 and will be effective through March 31, 2012.

For detailed analysis of NCCI for most commonly used interventional techniques, please follow link: http://www.asipp.org/documents/Physcians2012FinalasofDec202011.pdf

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If you missed the live Coding Webinar it's not to late to purchase the archived version. This is your opportunity to get informed on your own timeschedule.

Experience the same great discussion, powerpoint presentation, and printable materials as the webinar attendees did all on your own time.

Coding is critical to your practice and there are new changes you need to know about. Once you purchase, you can watch it anytime, anywhere, as often as you want.

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January 10, 2012 - About 200 million adults worldwide used illicit drugs, including cannabis, amphetamines, cocaine, and opioids such as heroin, in 2009, according to the first part of a special 3-part series on addiction, published January 6 in the Lancet.

Australian researchers Louisa Degenhardt, PhD, and Wayne Hall, PhD, found that the disease burden is highest in high-income nations and drug-producing regions of poor countries, representing a health toll similar to alcohol abuse, but less than that associated with tobacco

Machinery problems at a drug manufacturing plant prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to warn patients of a possible mix-up affecting various prescription pain medications and over-the-counter drugs.

The FDA is advising patients who use certain prescription medications produced by Endo Pharmaceuticals to visually inspect their pills. And consumers who have select bottles of Excedrin, Bufferin, NoDoz and Gas-X, produced by Novartis, are being told to discard or return the products in a voluntary recall that started Sunday.

The over-the-counter drugs involved in the recall were manufactured at a Lincoln, Nebraska, facility which also produced various prescription pain medicines for Endo Pharmaceuticals, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. These pills include Percocet, Opana and Percodan.

Click Here for product photos.

This year promises to be a watershed year for healthcare in general, and for patients and physicians, in particular. No matter how the U.S. Supreme Court determines the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), 2012 will be a crucial turning point in the delivery of healthcare.

During the Congressional passage of the PPACA, White House advisors acknowledged that the economic forces in the legislation would accelerate physician employment by hospitals and larger physician groups. As mentioned in the "Roadmap for Physicians to Health Care Reform," the "private" part of private practice for physicians is disappearing. Currently, more than 80 percent of visits to physician offices have been to practices with five or fewer physicians. That will change drastically as more physicians feel pressure to move into larger groups or become employed by hospital systems. Through October of 2011, there have been 71 hospital mergers. All of this will change the face of the delivery aspect of health care, but a question remains: will it be for the better or worse?

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a set of 26 quality measures that will eventually be used to determine the quality of care that adult Medicaid patients are receiving in each state.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) required HHS to publish a core set of health quality measures for Medicaid-eligible adults by Jan. 1, 2012.

list of quality measures

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Doctors in America are harboring an embarrassing secret: Many of them are going broke.

This quiet reality, which is spreading nationwide, is claiming a wide range of casualties, including family physicians, cardiologists and oncologists.

Industry watchers say the trend is worrisome. Half of all doctors in the nation operate a private practice. So if a cash crunch forces the death of an independent practice, it robs a community of a vital health care resource.

An interesting CNN Money article, written by Parija Kavilanz and entitled "Doctors Going Broke" is making the rounds of the internet and getting some well deserved interest.

While there is considerable truth to be found in Kavilanz's piece, a deeper analysis is in order given the knee-jerk reaction by the many who are too quick to place the problem and the blame at the feet of the federal government.

ASIPP is pleased to announce the newly published patient education book, PAIN-WISE. It is the perfect tool to provide your patients the reliable information they need and deserve.

PAIN-WISE includes complete and authoritative information for your patients including:

• Identification of various parts of the body that can cause pain, using a simple anatomy guide Tips for getting the most out of doctor's visits * Basic explanations of common interventional pain management techniques * Information on minimally invasive surgery techniques
• Explanation of implantable therapies for the treatment of severe chronic pain

Written by three ASIPP members, PAIN-WISE was edited for clarity and conciseness and features numerous illustrations and photographs to help your patients better understand their diagnosis and treatment protocols.

PAIN-WISE is a comprehensive and affordable publication you can offer to your patients to help educate them on their path to wellness.

Here's How to Order

To enable ASIPP members to provide a copy of PAIN-WISE to each patient in their care, ASIPP has made available through the publisher, a very special discount. You can purchase these books at a discounted price of up to 50% off the $15 retail price. Your cost for this must-have ASIPP patient education initiative can be as low as $7.50 per copy plus shipping and handling when purchased in quantity.

Follow the link today to order online at www.hatherleigh.com or call toll-free 1-800-367-2550 (All royalties from sales of PAIN-WISE go to a national media campaign about pain awareness supported by ASIPP.)to place your order by phone.

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a final rule on the electronic transfer of funds between insurers and healthcare providers that the agency says will save billions of dollars and millions of pounds of paper.

The move sets the stage for insurers to eventually eliminate paper checks and instead transfer payments to healthcare providers electronically. The rule will save physicians and hospitals between $3 billion and $4.5 billion over the next decade, by saving paper, printing, and postage costs, as well as savings in staff time to manually process and deposit paper checks, according to HHS.

Tennessee consistently has high rates of prescription drug abuse and high rates of prescription drugs prescribed. According to a Novartis Pharmacy Report, in 2006, Tennessee ranked No. 1 in prescriptions per capita, and its residents obtained prescriptions at a rate of 1½ times that of the national average.

According to a recent study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), doctor shopping is a primary method for obtaining controlled drugs for illegitimate use. Doctor shopping is when patients visit numerous prescribers for multiple prescriptions for controlled drugs for abuse or sale.

WASHINGTON - U.S. healthcare spending was up 3.9 percent in 2010, just slightly more than the 3.8 percent growth seen in 2009, according to numbers released Monday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The rate of growth in healthcare spending in 2009 and 2010 marked the two slowest rates in the 51 years that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been tracking it. Total 2010 health spending rose to $2.6 trillion, or $8,402 per person, the agency said.

FSIPP Annual Meeting Dates May 18-20, 2012

The Florida Society of Interventional Pain Physicians has set the date for their next annual meeting for May 18-20, 2012 at the Gaylord Palms, Orlando, FL.

Read more about the meeting and other activities going on in the state of Florida in their newsletter. Click HERE to read latest issue.

For a complete look at the May meeting schedule and CME information, click HERE

CASIPP Annual Meeting Dates Nov. 9-11, 2012

The California Society of Interventional Pain Physicians Annual Meeting of the will be Nov. 9 -11, 2012 at the Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Beach, CA.

Go to www.casipp.com for more information.

Visit the ASIPP Web site to find available positions for IPM physicians.