Room Block Deadline Oct. 28 for ASIPP's November Meetings - Register for One Today
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Regenerative medicine is a NEW and EVOLVING field for interventional pain management. Know if and when to offer these treatments.   Choose to attend one of ASIPP's November meetings. You can attend the 2-day intensive Regenerative Medicine Workshop or the 1 day Hands-On Cadaver Workshop for IPM Techniques. 

• Attain understanding of regenerative medicine.
• Attain eligibility for competency certification with the completion of both levels.
• Incorporate regenerative medicine in treating your patients so that patients have better outcomes and reduced side effects.
• Provide high-quality, competent, safe, accessible, and cost-efficient services to your patients.

• Integrate multiple aspects of interventional pain management in treating your patients so that patients have better outcomes and reduced side effects.
• Provide high-quality, competent, safe, accessible, and cost-efficient services to your patients.
• Improve existing skills and/or develop new skills in the delivery of interventional techniques.
• Review multiple areas of interventional pain management including fluoroscopic interpretation

Accommodations

Inform the agent that you are booking for American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. We have secured a group rate of $159.

 

Cadaver Venue:

OQUENDO CENTER , 2425 E. Oquendo Road, Las Vegas, NV 89120

Phone: 702.739.6698 | Toll Free: 866.800.7326 |

http://www.oquendocenter.org 

Capitol Hill Revisited

  

On October 7 and 8, 2015 a group of 27 ASIPP leaders and members went to Washington, D.C. to voice concerns important to interventional pain management practitioners. Over the course of the two days on Capitol Hill, we met with 41 Senators and Representatives along with their staff.

  

The two main issues we discussed were the improper reimbursement patterns for Medicare Advantage plans ( fact sheet) and the intellectual bias and conflicts of interest of the AHRQ Technology Assessment for Low Back Pain Therapies ( fact sheet).

  

It is well known that Medicare Advantage has unilaterally chosen to deny payment for certain IPM procedures. These denials are in violation of policies set forth by the government for coverage. During our visits, we made elected officials aware of these violations and asked them to take action by asking CMS to hold Medicare Advantage accountable by honoring their contract in order to restore patient access to these procedures.

  

We also discussed the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) Technology Assessment for pain injection therapies for low back pain. ASIPP has pointed out on numerous occasions the intellectual bias of this review as well as undisclosed funding from big pharma, and also the fact that this review was completely unnecessary. We emphasized to the Senators and Representatives that the AHRQ Technology Assessment is harmful to treatment access for our chronic pain patients in need of treatment. We stressed that the Technology Assessment should be discarded because of its multiple flaws and that the AHRQ should be defunded.

  

Those who volunteered their time to advocate for our patients and specialty were:

Sanjay Bakshi, MD, Ramsin Benyamin, MD, Kaylea Boutwell, MD, David Bryce, MD, Aaron Calodney, MD, Harold Cordner, MD, Sudhir Diwan, MD, Frank Falco, MD, C. Mark Fallows, DO, Judy Fallows, Christopher Gharibo, MD, Hans Hansen, MD, Standiford Helm, II, MD, Noel Helm, Leighann Hessler, Paul Hubbell, MD, Donald Jones, MD, Andrew Keller, NP-C, Magdalena Kerschner, MD, Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, Dharam Mann, MD, Melinda Martin, Francis Riegler, MD, Peter Staats, MD, John Swicegood, MD, and Cindy Swicegood.

  

The ASIPP group met with the following legislators and/or their staff: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY); Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA); Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY); Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR); Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL); Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL); Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL); Rep. Richard Nugent (R-FL); Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL); Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR); Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR); Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL); Rep. Ann Louise Wagner (R-MO); Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA); Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA); Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO); Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA); Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL); Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ); Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY); Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ); Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ); Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI); Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH); Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI); Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI); Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH); Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX); Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN); Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY), Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), Rep. Pete Olsen (R-TX), Sen. Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), and Rep. John Duncan (R-TN).

  

See Photos

Make your plans now to participate in the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians abstract and poster presentation at the 18th Annual Meeting, April 15-17 in Dallas, Texas.

  

The abstract submission deadline will be February 9, 2016.

  

The annual meeting is a great opportunity to share your abstract with hundreds of physicians who specialize in interventional pain management.

  

SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT

Disappointing Results Seen Thus Far for Choosing Wisely

  

The Choosing Wisely campaign was designed as a starting point of sorts for a new approach to clinical decision-making and, according to new findings, it may be just that: a starting point.

Authors of a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine  found that, for seven treatment and testing services listed by the Choosing Wisely campaign as usually unnecessary, use of two had indeed declined, but use of the other five either did not change or had increased.

The investigators -- all affiliated with Anthem, the big health insurer, and led by Alan Rosenberg, MD, the firm's vice president of clinical pharmacy and medical policy -- recommended new measures to effect meaningful change in physician knowledge and behavior.

MedPage Today

Annual Physical Exam: Expensive And Unnecessary, Or Valuable For Doctor-Patient Relationships?

 

Many Americans ritualistically schedule and check in to an annual physical examination. About one-third of American adults receive a physical every year, a practice that has recently been questioned more and more. Some doctors are calling for the once-a-year physical to be abandoned because of a lack of results, but others defend the practice as beneficial.

 

Two editorials published in the Oct. 15 New England Journal of Medicine battle it out, airing reasons for or against annual physicals.

 

Mehrotrova A, Prochazka A. Improving Value in Health Care-Against the Annual Physical.  New England Journal of Medicine. 2015.

 

Goroll A. Toward Trusting therapeutic Relationships-In Favor of the Annual Physical.  New England Journal of Medicine. 2015.

 

Medical Daily

 

Medicare Premium Hike Looms, Congress Takes No Action

 

WASHINGTON -- Medicare Part B premiums will be increasing by as much as half for a large group of beneficiaries in 2016 unless Congress acts before the end of the year -- which is far from certain.

The projected increase -- from an average of about $105 per month to $159.30 -- occurs because in 2016, there will be no cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients. People who get their Medicare premiums deducted from their Social Security checks -- about two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries -- are protected by law from having their Medicare premiums increase any more than their Social Security benefits increase, so they won't have an increase in their Medicare premiums.

  

  

MedPage Today

The Changing Landscape of Prescription Drug Abuse and Diversion

 

Drug abuse in the United States has been changing over the years, and as more people become dependent on their drug of choice, clinicians are being forced to deal with the consequences. 

 

"Drug abuse has been going on for centuries," said Lisa McElhaney, president of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators. "We cannot regulate our way out of this problem without addressing the negative behaviors that are creating a growing epidemic."

 

 

Clinical Pain Advisor

 

Nonmedical Opioid Use Decreasing, But Complications Still Prevalent

 

Prescription opioid use for nonmedical purposes has decreased among US adults from 2003 to 2013, but the prevalence of prescription opioid disorders, frequency of opioid use, and deaths attributable to the drugs have increased during the same time period, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

 

Illness and death due to nonmedical use of prescription opioids have been increasing in the United States since 1999 and have occurred in the context of rising heroin use and overdose deaths.

 

Clinical Pain Advisor

Nonmedical prescription opioid use disorders, deaths increase in the US

 

From 2003 to 2013, the percentage of nonmedical use of prescription opioids decreased among adults in the U.S., while the prevalence of prescription opioid use disorders, frequency of use, and related deaths increased, according to a study in the October 13 issue of JAMA.

 

Since 1999, the United States has experienced increases in illness and death associated with nonmedical use of prescription opioids, which is being called a U.S. epidemic. During this period, emergency department visits and drug overdose deaths involving these drugs have increased rapidly. To fully understand the current status of the epidemic and who is currently most affected, an examination of nationally representative U.S. surveillance data is needed.

 

Science Daily

 

 

Changes in Substance Abuse Treatment Use Among Individuals With Opioid Use Disorders in the United States, 2004-2013

 

 

CHICAGO -Medicare's investment in accountable care organizations has inspired hospitals and doctors to create their own versions of ACOs with private insurers. But as with Medicare, not all private ACOs are achieving lower costs and higher quality.

Providers and insurers need to do a better job of reaching patients and employers, according to physician executives at four large health insurance companies. They gave their take on the private ACO movement at an event held by America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's trade group.

Their experiences reflect that ACOs are still a new structure, and building a new payment and care model as complex as an ACO is not easy to roll out.

 

Modern Healthcare

Trends in Controlled Substance Rxs Highlight Need to Curb Overprescribing

 

The first multi-state report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Prescription Behavior Surveillance System (PBSS) shows state prescribing practices for prescription opioid pain relievers, benzodiazepines (sedatives/tranquilizers), and stimulants vary significantly despite a similar prevalence of the conditions these medications are intended to treat. The study appears in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

Data from 2013 was submitted to the PBSS from prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) in eight states (California, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Ohio, and West Virginia) on every prescription for a controlled substance. This information represent approximately one fourth of the U.S. population.

 

Opioid analgesics were prescribed about twice as frequently as stimulants or benzodiazepines in all eight states, but prescribing rates by drug class varied widely by state. Prescribing rates for opioids and benzodiazepines were substantially higher for females than males in all states; in most states, opioid prescribing rates peaked in the 45-54 years or the 55-64 years age group and benzodiazepine prescribing rates increased with age. Louisiana ranked first in opioid prescribing, while Delaware and Maine had relatively high rates of use of long-acting (LA) or extended-release (ER) opioids. Delaware and Maine were greatest in both mean daily opioid dosage and in the percentage of opioid prescriptions written for >100MMEs (morphine milligram equivalents) per day.

 

 

MPR

Slippery Slope: Academia Takes a Step Back from Industry CME

 

Facing state budget cuts to the University of Wisconsin system and dwindling federal funding, Robert Golden, MD, would love to find a pile of money somewhere.

 

But there are certain things Golden -- and some other medical school officials across the country -- say they won't do: Take money from drug companies for CME programs, for example.

 

They can't even pick the topic, said Golden, dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

That's a big change from just 8 years ago.

 

 

MedPageToday

 

Beware of Imported Supplements and Nonprescription Drugs, Warns FDA

 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a safety alert to consumers regarding imported products marketed as dietary supplements and non-prescription drug products, often sold at ethnic or international stores, flea markets, swap meets, or online.

 

An FDA spokesperson stated that health scammers often target advertising to individuals who prefer to shop at nontraditional places and markets, particularly those with limited English proficiency and/or limited access to healthcare services and information. However, these products may be contaminated or contain hidden drug ingredients that have been removed from the market or not approved for use in the United States. Some dietary products could also resemble antibiotic products marketed in other countries, but not actually contain any antibiotics. In addition, illegally imported antibiotics sold without a prescription and with no clinical oversight may lead to misuse and abuse while contributing to antibiotic resistance.

 

MPR