Strategies for the Survival of Independent Practice in the Era of Regulation and Empowered Insurance and Hospital Industry

Topic: The Role of Media in IPM: Past, Present, and Future

Dr. Susan Blank is Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of the Atlanta Healing Center.  She is President of the Georgia Society of Addiction Medicine and serves on the Advisory Board of the Georgia Physician's Health Program. She is also a member of the Board of Directors for The Georgia Council on Alcohol and Drugs.  Dr. Blank can be heard nationwide every Tuesday on her weekly radio show "Detailing Addiction" on America's Web Radio. ( http://americaswebradio.com/) 

Topic: Pathophysiology of Controlled Substance Use, Overuse, Abuse, Dependency, and Addiction

WEBINAR FEE: $195   

WEBINAR DATE: December 10, 2015

TIME: 11:00am-12:30am CDT

LENGTH: 90 Minutes

SPEAKER: Marvel Hammer, RN, BS, CPC, CCS-P, ACS-PM, CPCO 

 

Get up to speed with the coding changes that are coming in 2016 for Interventional Pain Management practices. You are responsible for reporting the services correctly so you don't risk delays, denials, or incorrect payments for your coding and billing. Learn to navigate coding, billing and compliance changes for 2016 in this 90-minute webinar with coding expert Marvel J. Hammer, RN, CPC, CCS-P, ACS-PM, CPCO. 

Webinar highlights:

• 64461-64463: When is a paravertebral injection not coded as a paravertebral facet joint injection?
• How will providers report spinal accessory nerve injections in 2016?
• What NEW 2016 CPT Section Guidelines will effect facet joint nerve radio frequency ablation coding?
• Get the published clarification, once and for all, on compliant CPT coding for neurolytic destruction of paravertebral facet joint nerves
• What is the status of reporting fluoroscopy used with the 62310-62319 code set for 2016?  Were there changes in CPT?
• In 2016, what changes in spinal cord neurostimulator programming requirements?
• What are the CPT changes for Prolonged E/M services in 2016?  What is CPT's definition of qualified health care professional versus clinical staff?
• Find out if there are any changes in 2016 for reporting presumptive or definitive drug testing
• Where are we at in terms of surviving the Oct 1st implementation?
• What is CMS proposing for coding changes for 2016 for presumptive and definitive drug testing?
• Review 2015 mid-year and 2016 HCPCS drug code changes
• Find out pain management coding questions that has been addressed in the past year by CPT Assistant
• What will be the "hot topics" on the OIG Work Plan for 2016?

Your practice depends on your coding know-how, and there's no better way to make sure you're the "go-to" coder than to be ready for the New Year. Make sure you're on top of the latest changes by attending this must-have event.  

 

Note: Extra time will be devoted to a question and answer session at the end of the webinar presentation.

CLICK HERE to register

FDA Says More Regulation Needed on Lab Tests

 

The Food and Drug Administration, in a report released on the eve of a congressional hearing Tuesday, said that certain laboratory tests "may have caused or have caused" actual harm to patients by producing erroneous results. At issue are so-called lab-developed tests, or LDTs, which are produced and performed within a single hospital or corporate laboratory. Such tests are often done on tissue samples sent in from outside doctors and hospitals. They are distinct from standard diagnostic equipment and products that are sold to doctors' offices, hospitals or other labs. The FDA said it has largely left the lab-developed-test business alone, but agency officials want to step up their regulatory action now that some laboratories are marketing such tests nationwide.

 

Wall Street Journal

Women with Knee Pain May Have Higher Death Risk

 

Women with knee pain had a significantly increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, with or without radiographic osteoarthritis (ROA), but not with ROA alone, according to British researchers.

Compared with the reference group with neither knee pain nor ROA and in an age-adjusted model, the pain-only OA group had an almost 50% increased risk of all-cause mortality with a hazard ratio of 1.49 (95% CI 1.04-2.14,  P =0.029), rising to 1.55 in the Framingham-adjusted model (95% CI 1.07-2.22,  P =0.019), reported Stefan Kluzek, MBBS, of the University of Oxford.

 

 

MedPage Today

Extended-Release Oxycodone/Acetaminophen: Overview of a Novel Opioid

 

In 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first and only extended-release (ER) formulation of oral oxycodone HCl and acetaminophen (Xartemis XR, made by Mallinkrodt, Inc).

Previously known as MNK-795, the product is designed to provide both immediate and prolonged analgesia for up to 12 hours in patients with acute pain. It is intended for use in patients for whom alternative treatments are ineffective, not tolerated, or otherwise inadequate.

In a review published in the October issue ofJournal of Pain Research, Mary Bekhit, MD, from UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles, CA, discusses the pharmacological properties, clinical utility, contraindications and patient considerations associated with ER oxycodone and acetaminophen (APAP) combination therapy.

 

 

Clinical Pain Advisor

Guidelines for Prescribing Pain Meds for Workers' Compensation

 

LAS VEGAS - As many as 10% to 20% of patients who enter the worker's compensation system due to physical trauma go on to develop chronic pain due to either progression of the injury or the initial injury being severe in nature.

Patients who require long-term treatment may have started on typical medications, such as anti-inflammatory drugs and muscle relaxants, but in the long run these patients often have higher use of antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and long-acting opioids, according to Matthew P. Foster, PharmD, a senior clinical pharmacy manager with Helios. 

 

 

Clinical Pain Advisor

One-Third of New AxSpA Cases Bail Out on NSAIDs

 

Patients with suspected axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA) on full-dose nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) had a high drop-out rate, according to a 6-week Belgian study of daily practice.

About a third of eligible newly diagnosed AxSpA patients were unable to continue the full dose and others were excluded for noncompliance and other reasons. The median NSAID index reached 97% in patients who completed the study, reported Filip Van den Bosch, MD, of Ghent University Hospital, and colleagues.

 

 

MedPage Today

Introducing ASIPP Podcast

In the premiere episode of the ASIPP Podcast, host and ASIPP staff member Tom Prigge runs down ASIPP's upcoming calendar of events and talks with ASIPP board member Dr. Devi Nampiaparampil about using mass media in your practice. In the news segment there are stories about babies and pain, homemade opioids, drawing blood without a needle, eating away pain, and improved shingles vaccine and more. Finally, Tom reports on the Ignoble Prizes in medicine, the opposite of the Nobel Prizes.

http://asipppod.podbean.com/

Steroid Shots No Long-Term Help in Knee OA

 

SAN FRANCISCO -- Intra-articular steroid injections are not effective over the long term for preventing structural damage in knee osteoarthritis, a 2-year randomized trial found.

In the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, there were no significant differences between patients who received injections of triamcinolone hexacetonide every 12 weeks and those given placebo in change in pain on the Western Ontario and McMaster University Arthritis Index (WOMAC), with differences of -2.2 in the steroid group and -2.8 in the placebo group ( P =0.3), reported Timothy E. McAlindon, MD, of Tufts University in Boston.

 

 

MedPage today

Unraveling the Mystery of Fibromyalgia

 

Fibromyalgia is a common, debilitating condition that has long confounded researchers - the syndrome has had no demonstrable pathology or definitive diagnostic test. Now, new research suggests that fibromyalgia may have a neuropathic basis in some patients.  

In a study published in the October issue of Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, researchers found that women with fibromyalgia exhibited corneal nerve atrophy consistent with neuropathic pain. The findings suggest that some patients with fibromyalgia may actually have small fiber polyneuropathy (SFPN), a disease with potentially treatable causes.

 

 

Clinical Pain Advisor

Setting Opioid Dosage Limits in Clinical Practice

 

With the ever-increasing concern regarding overdose in patients prescribed opioid medication, there is a growing interest in possibly establishingclinic-determined daily dose limitations when opioid medications are prescribed. Although this safeguard alone may not prevent overdose deaths, it might provide an additional measure of safety in which higher doses of opioid medication can inadvertently lead to more unwanted opioid-induced events. 

In one pain clinic where such limitations have been placed, the amount of opioid prescribed per patient is maintained at levels substantially lower than 200 mg/d morphine equivalent. A total of 18% of the patient panel are now on a treatment regimen involving two opioids (a short-acting agent along with a longer-acting opioid) and 83% are using a single opioid agent. Most patients are successfully managed using a morphine equivalent dosage range between 60 mg/d and 90 mg/d.

 

 

Clinical Pain Advisor

What Behaviors Do You Hate on Airplanes?

 

eat kickers and spaced-out parents rank as the two most disliked airline travelers, according to travel site Expedia's third annual Airplane Etiquette Study.

People who repeatedly bump the back of your seat rate as the most aggravating co-flyers, garnering 61% of worst-in-air-behavior votes from the 1,019 US interviewees. It doesn't matter to those surveyed whether the kickers were six-foot-six athletes with no place to put their knees or hyperactive children swinging their legs. The backseat bullies fly to the top of the infuriating flyers' list.

Physician's Money Digest