Facebook Join My List Logo
American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians | August 21, 2019
Registration Open for Inaugural Midsouth Meeting in Memphis September 20-22
 
The first meeting of the Midsouth Societies of Interventional Pain Physicians will be September 20-22 in Memphis at the Historic Peabody Hotel.
 
IPM: Issues, Pitfalls and Opportunities is for physicians and midlevel practitioners for the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.
 
Click here for meeting registration.
 
Click Below to view:
Join the AMA to help us keep our seat in the House of Delegates

The American Medical Association (AMA) requires all societies to requalify for membership in the AMA House of Delegates (HOD) every five years. In order for ASIPP to retain our seat, the AMA requires that 20% of ASIPP’s physician members also be members of the AMA. Unfortunately, ASIPP is at risk of losing representation in the AMA because we have fallen below the 20% membership minimum threshold.

Membership in the AMA gives us a voice in shaping policy that affects our practice and patients.
We encourage you to join or renew your membership in the AMA. Joining the AMA will further strengthen our specialty’s representation at the national level through the AMA House of Delegates, the AMA’s policymaking body, and strengthen our ability to meet the challenges in health care today with thoughtful, well-organized responses.

We strongly encourage you to join the AMA today to help us keep our seat at the table. Right now, you can become a member and pay only half the dues.

The stronger our membership, the more we can advance issues that are important to our specialty including improving the Medicare Quality Payment Program, reducing administrative burdens and ensuring accurate coding and reimbursement of our services.

Thank you for supporting ASIPP!

Click HERE to join today and pay only half price! 
2019 ASIPP Washington Legislative Meeting and Capitol Hill visits set for October 15-16, 2019  
Now is our chance!
Let your voices be heard!  
 
At no other time in the history of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians has it been more important for you, as members, to get involved in our advocacy efforts. Despite o ur ongoing, tireless efforts, with some improvements, our specialty continues to be affected by coverage and reimbursement issues. These issues continue to hurt more than just our bottom lines; some practices and surgery centers have been forced to close their doors or sell to others.
 
Our legislative issues include:
  •  Non-coverage by Medicare Advantage
  •  Dual eligibility with Medicaid not paying 20%
  •  Centene acquisition of Well Care
  •  Onerous audits and investigations
  • Incorporation of best practices in Pain Management
  • Support for preauthorization for Medicare Advantage
  • Support for H.R.3107 - Improving Seniors' Timely Access to Care Act of 2019 (preauthorization bill)

We have scheduled a legislative conference for October 15-16, 2019. To participate in this conference, you must to be in Washington DC on Tuesday, October 15 in order to attend the preparation session Tuesday evening. Then, on Wednesday, October 16, we will head to Capitol Hill for breakfast and congressional speeches. You will be able to fly out late on Wednesday evening. Please do not plan on leaving before 6 pm.  
 
Each member is expected to visit two senators and one member of Congress for a total of three visits.  
 
ASIPP has booked a block of rooms at the beautiful Melrose Georgetown Hotel, less than a mile from the Hill. You will be responsible for travel expenses.  Please let us know as soon as possible if you will be attending so that we can begin making the appointments. Please bring your family, friends and employees.
 
It will be fun! If you have never participated before, just ask those who have. Not only is this a necessary and important meeting, but it is also an exciting and fun experience.
 
Please contact Melinda Martin, ASIPP Director of Operations, at [email protected] if you are interested in attending.
 
Big Bucks for Burnout: Can $155M Solve the Problem?
New UCSD institute has ambitious goal: to measure compassion in the brain, and instill it in young physicians

Can big bucks and training courses influenced by Tibetan Buddhist teachings solve the problem of physician burnout?
With support from the Dalai Lama, whose approving words encouraged a philanthropist's generous gift, researchers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) are building the $155-million T. Denny Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion. Sanford, a South Dakota billionaire with long-standing philanthropic ties to the San Diego area, has pledged $100 million; UCSD will provide the rest.
The money will, they hope, restore doctors' faith and satisfaction in medicine and prepare them to better cope with their increasing demands.
 
National Review of Opioid Prescribing in Medicaid Is Not Yet Possible

WHY WE DID THIS STUDY
Historically, national Medicaid data—a collection of data submitted by all States—have not been complete, accurate, and timely. These data have not yet been adequate for national analysis and oversight, even though some States' data have been sufficient for individual State analysis. Because of concerns with the quality and completeness of the national Medicaid claims database-the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS)-we assessed the completeness of variables needed to monitor national opioid prescribing in Medicaid.
HOW WE DID THIS STUDY
We assessed variables needed to identify (1) beneficiaries at risk of opioid misuse or overdose (i.e., variables needed to calculate beneficiaries' total opioid dosage, and diagnosis codes to exclude patients for whom higher doses of opioids may be appropriate) and (2) the National Provider Identifiers (NPIs) of providers that ordered and dispensed opioids (i.e., prescribers and pharmacies, respectively).
WHAT WE FOUND
A national review of opioid prescribing in Medicaid using T MSIS is not yet possible because not all at-risk beneficiaries and providers can be identified. Limitations of T-MSIS data impede identification of individual beneficiaries for national opioid analysis. Further, 32 States were missing NPI, diagnosis code, or quantity. For the 19 States that were missing pharmacy or prescriber NPI, States were most frequently missing pharmacy NPI.
WHAT WE RECOMMEND
To ensure the identification of at-risk beneficiaries and providers who may be overprescribing, we recommend that CMS (1) work to ensure that individual beneficiaries can be uniquely identified at a national level using T-MSIS, (2) ensure the correct submission of prescriber NPIs, and (3) clarify requirements for diagnosis codes. CMS concurred with all three recommendations.
 
Nursing board signs off on ‘anesthesiologist’ title
 
TALLAHASSEE — John McDonough, an advanced practice registered nurse, has for years identified as a “nurse anesthesiologist,” and he tells his patients the same.
Now he can do it with the blessing of the Florida Board of Nursing, which at a meeting last week in Fort Myers unanimously agreed to allow McDonough, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, to officially use the anesthesiologist title.
Although the board’s ruling only applies to McDonough — also a professor and director of the nurse anesthesiology program at the University of North Florida — doctors fear that more certified registered nurse anesthetists will follow suit.

Small Pharmacies = Big Opioid Pushers

Half of all the opioid pills distributed in the U.S. from 2006 through 2012 were handled by just 15% of pharmacies, the Washington Post reports.
The worst offender: Shearer Drug in Clinton County, Kentucky, purchased nearly 6.8 million pills that contained hydrocodone and oxycodone during that time. That translated to 96 pills per year for every woman, man, and child in this county of 10,000.
Coming in second was Hardin County Discount Pharmacy in Illinois (almost 2.8 million pills, or 90 per resident annually), followed by Arnzen's Kamiah Drug in Idaho (nearly 2.3 million pills, or 88 per resident each year). Every one of the Post's top 10, as ranked by pills per county resident per year, was an independent drugstore located in a rural area.
These pharmacies handled large volumes of opioids during an epidemic of abuse in the U.S., and, "until now, have largely avoided publicity for their roles in the epidemic," according to the article.
The findings come from analysis of the DEA's Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS), which tracks every pain pill distributed in the U.S. The Post and HD Media, which publishes the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia, fought a year-long battle for access to the database, and a judge recently ordered the release of seven years' worth of its records. For this latest story, reporters traced the path of the more than 70 billion pain pills distributed to about 83,000 pharmacies.

JUNE 2020 ABIPP EXAMS
AND COMPETENCY EXAMS
June 13 - June 14, 2020 | Memphis, TN
 
The American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians ( ABIPP ) has developed certification programs that recognize accepted levels of knowledge and expertise in the interventional pain management
profession, with the goal of improved patient care. Hundreds of qualified physicians have made the commitment to become ABIPP certified.
ABIPP now offers the only competency certification program for regenerative medicine.
 
For complete information about the examination requirements and to obtain an application packet, visit www.abipp.org or call 270-554-9412 x4217 or by email at [email protected].
 
June 13
ABIPP Part I  
Combined CSM/CCPM Exam for ABIPP Path
Competency Exam in Controlled Substance Management
Competency Exam in Coding, Compliance, and
Practice Management

June 13-14
ABIPP Part II  
Regenerative Medicine Competency Exam
Endoscopic Lumbar Decompression Competency Exam

June 14
ABIPP Competency Exam


939 Ridge Lake Blvd. | Memphis, TN 38120
 
 California alleges doctor killed 4 patients with opioids

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s attorney general said Wednesday that he is charging a Northern California doctor with killing four patients by overprescribing opioids and narcotics, crimes he linked to the nationwide opioid epidemic.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed multiple criminal charges against Dr. Thomas McNeese Keller, 72, of Santa Rosa related to nine of his patients. The charges include second-degree murder in four deaths and felony elderly abuse for a fifth patient who also died. The murder charges could bring a life sentence.
It’s the first time that a California attorney general has filed murder charges against a doctor for overprescribing opioids, Becerra’s office said. His office last year persuaded a state appeals court to uphold the second-degree murder conviction of a former osteopathic doctor, Hsiu Ying Tseng, who is serving a life sentence for the overdose deaths of three patients, but those charges were initially filed by a local prosecutor.


Interventional Pain Management Reports is an Open Access online journal, a peer-reviews journal dedicated to the publication of case reports, brief commentaries and reviews and letters to the editor. It is a peer-reviewed journal written by and directed to an audience of interventional pain physicians, clinicians and basic scientists with an interest in interventional pain management and pain medicine. 

Interventional Pain Management Reports is an official publication of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) and is a sister publication of Pain Physician . Interventional Pain Management Reports Interventional Pain Management Reports is an open access journal, available online with free full manuscripts.  

The benefits of publishing in an open access journal that has a corresponding
print edition journal are:  
  • Your article will have the potential to obtain more citations.
  • Your article will be peer-reviewed and published faster than other journals.
  • Your article can be read by a potentially much larger audience compared with traditional subscription-only journals.  
  • Open Access journals are FREE to view, download and to print.

So submit today your:
  • Case Reports
  • Technical Reports
  • Editorials
  • Short Perspectives

2019 MIPS Reporting? Start Now.
MIPS-eligible clinicians must report a full year of data. Don’t fall behind – keep up with NIPM-QCDR.
 
MIPS 2019 has brought larger payment adjustments and greater reporting requirements, including a 365-day performance period for the Quality and Cost categories. The sooner you start your MIPS reporting for 2019, the better.
Sign up today to use ASIPP’s NIPM-QCDR for MIPS.
This powerful tool makes MIPS reporting easy through the use of our new patient-reported outcomes measures for 2019, which ease the burden on providers and reduces costly EMR integration.

Get started today at ASIPP.ArborMetrix.net

State Society News 



Send in your state society meeting news to Holly Long, [email protected]
ASIPP | Pain Physician Journal | Phone | Fax | Email