Facebook Join My List Logo
American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians | August 14, 2019
Book Your Room at The Peabody Memphis for September Midsouth Meeting by Monday, Aug. 19   
 
The first meeting of the Midsouth Societies of Interventional Pain Physicians will be September 20-22 in Memphis. IPM: Issues, Pitfalls and Opportunities is for physicians and midlevel practitioners for the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.
 
The discounted room rate at The Peabody ends Aug. 19 and space is limited. Reserve your room today!

Click here for meeting registration and hotel booking information. 

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.
 
I Am a Keto-Friendly Cardiologist and I Love Keyto
The Skeptical Cardiologist comes out of the keto "closet"

The Skeptical Cardiologist has become more selective with regard to who he will accept as a new patient. In practical terms, this means I now call patients who want to see me and discuss with them why they want to see me, how they were referred or heard about me, and what their expectations are.
This might seem a little odd but turns out to be an excellent way for me to meet and smooth entrance for these newbies into my practice and gather important records and recordings prior to the first visit.
Recently, when I asked one of these potential patients why they had sought me as their cardiologist, the wife told me that through her internet research she had gleaned that I was a "keto-friendly cardiologist."

Screen All Adult Patients for Drug Abuse, National Panel Urges

With 1 in 10 Americans saying they misuse drugs, doctors should ask everyone about both illegal and prescription use, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said.
A national panel of health experts recommended on Tuesday that doctors screen all adult patients for illicit drug use, including improper use of prescription medications. But the group, the United States Preventive Services Task Force , stopped short of endorsing such screening for teenagers, a position that puts them at odds with major adolescent health groups.
The panel, which is appointed by the federal Department of Health and Human Services but operates independently, said that its proposed guidelines are intended to combat alarmingly high rates of substance abuse in the United States. It cited a 2017 federal survey that found 1 in 10 Americans ages 18 and older said they were using illicit drugs or not using medications in ways that doctors intended.
 
Age-Adjusted Drug Overdose Death Rate Higher in Urban Counties

HealthDay News — In 2017, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths was higher in urban than rural counties, according to an August data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics.
Holly Hedegaard, M.D., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues examined urban-rural differences in drug overdose death rates using the most recent data from the National Vital Statistics System.
The researchers found that compared with rural counties, urban counties had a higher age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths in 2017 (22.0 versus 20.0 per 100,000, respectively). The rates were higher in urban than rural counties for men (29.9 versus 24.3) and in rural versus urban counties for women (15.5 versus 14.2). Higher rates were seen in urban versus rural counties for drug overdose deaths involving heroin (5.2 versus 2.9), synthetic opioids other than methadone (9.3 versus 7.0), and cocaine (4.6 versus 2.4). In contrast, rural counties had higher rates for drug overdose deaths involving natural and semisynthetic opioids (4.9 versus 4.3) and psychostimulants with abuse potential (4.0 versus 3.1).
 
Want to be fined? Follow CMS’ opioid guidelines.

Recent federal guidelines on opioid prescribing have forced physicians to become extremely cautious in their prescribing habits and documentation as well as their handling of patients with opioid addictions.                                                 
With all the attention on opioid overprescribing, little attention has been paid to patients with chronic pain and a true need for high doses of pain medication. Even less attention has been paid to physicians trying to balance the government’s prescribing guidelines with the needs of these chronic pain patients.
In a recent case, the New Hampshire Board of Medicine investigated a physician who is board certified in pain management and anesthesiology after cutting back a chronic pain patient’s prescription opioid painkillers. The patient had been on a dosage of 80 mg of OxyContin twice daily and 30 mg of oxycodone four times a day for many years. After apparently reviewing the guidelines put out by CMS , which the physician read as allowing doctors to prescribe only up to 90 morphine milligram equivalents a day (MME), the doctor informed the patient he was reducing his dosage to comply with those guidelines. This reduction was less than one-quarter of what the patient had been taking (equivalent of 420 MME).



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
 
NPs/PAs 'Just as Effective' as Physicians? I Don't Think So
We need solutions to the physician shortage, but this one won't fly
 
There was a recent article in the Sunday newspaper about the upcoming shortage of primary care physicians. Although this article quotes an anticipated shortage of up to 55,200 primary care physicians by the year 2032, I've seen other studies that quote bigger numbers, upwards of 100,000 by the year 2030.
There's lots of reasons why this is happening. Student loan debt for the average medical student is often in the neighborhood of $200,000, with over 25% of students exceeding this level of debt. While our college buddies are finished with school in four years – or six, if they move on to a master's degree – many times it's several more years before any true earning potential emerges as we slug out the physician training protocol of internship, residency, and often fellowship.
 
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