Abstract Submission Deadline Extended to Friday, Feb. 21 

 Abstract Submission has been extended to Friday, Feb. 21. Enter your abstract proposal into the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians abstract and poster presentation at the 16th Annual Meeting set for April 4-6, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The top 20 abstracts will be published in Pain Physician journal. The top 20 will be selected for Poster presentation during the annual meeting on April 5. The top 5 will be presenting their abstracts during the regular session of all members on Saturday. That evening at the Presidential Awards Banquet, the top three abstract presenters will receive cash prizes.

 Those selected will be notified by March 4, 2014 and will receive free registration to the annual meeting.

Click HERE or a complete set of rules  

Click HERE to submit your abstract.

Attend ASIPP Annual Meeting--Enjoy Educational Programs Full of Controversy

 

| BROCHURE | ONLINE REGISTRATION | HOTEL | WEBSITE

 

 

The only one meeting with all this information available and more is ASIPP's 16th annual meeting in New Orleans.

 

Come to New Orleans and listen to many experts speaking on not only the scientific aspects of interventional pain management, but most importantly clinical and practical aspects. This is the only annual meeting which provides you tools to manage your practice and preserve the practice into future.

 

SPECIAL ROOM ALERT!

The ASIPP Annual Meeting hotel room block is full. If you are unable to book a room at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, rooms are available at several nearby hotels.

• Harrah's New Orleans - 228 Poydras Street - 800-427-7247
• Hyatt Place New Orleans Convention Center - 881 Convention Center Blvd. - 504-524-1881
• Lafayette Hotel - 600 Saint Charles Avenue - 866-460-7454
• Courtyard by Marriott New Orleans Downtown/Convention Center - 300 Julia - 504-598-9898
• St. James Hotel, an Ascend Hotel Collection Member - 330 Magazine Street - 866-599-6674

CONTROVERSIES OF EPIDURAL INJECTIONS

CHAIRPERSON - AARON CALODNEY, MD

FRIDAY, APRIL 4

Are Transforaminal Epidurals Superior? Comparison of Caudal, Interlaminar, and Transforaminal

Kenneth Candido, MD

Epidural Injections: Stenosis, Discogenic, Post-Surgery

Frank Falco, MD

Cervical Epidural Injections: Interlaminar vs. Transforaminal

Sudhir Diwan, MD

Complications of Transforaminal Epidural Injections: Cervical, Thoracic, and Lumbosacral

Aaron Calodney, MD

Mechanism of Injury with Epidural Injections: Artery, Needle, Steroid, or Physician?

Sairam Atluri, MD

Alternate Approaches Transforaminal: Safe Triangle, Post Ganglion, Retrodiscal, or Kambin Triangle

Scott Glaser, MD

Visit the 2014 ASIPP Annual Meeting Website for more detail

Keep your patients informed and entertained with ASIPP-TV24 in your waiting room.

  With ASIPP-TV24 our patients will view TV programming about Interventional Pain Management furnished by the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) and video of your practice if you choose. Your waiting room patients will increase their awareness of pain management issues and procedures by watching ASIPP-TV24.

And this relevant and appealing programming will also lessen the perceived wait time for patients and caregivers. ASIPP-TV24 is easy to setup and run. A media player and all of the content, administration, and technical support is handled by ASIPP and it's partner Tanager Productions. Fresh content is downloaded to your office on a regular basis. All of this for a subscription fee as low as $35 per month.

For more information Click Here.

Health Law's Impact Has Only Begun

On Jan. 1, the key provisions of the Affordable Care Act took effect. Americans gained access to new health plans subsidized by federal dollars. Insurers no longer can turn away people with existing conditions. Millions are now eligible for new Medicaid benefits.

But the federal law also upended existing health-insurance arrangements for millions of people. Companies worry about the expense of providing new policies, some hospitals aren't seeing the influx of new patients they expected to balance new costs and entrepreneurs say they may hire more part-time workers to avoid offering more coverage.

The law's true impact will play out over years. It will depend in part on whether backers overcome serious early setbacks, including crippling glitches in the new online insurance marketplaces and many states' rejection of the Medicaid expansion. But another obstacle the law faces is pushback from some consumers and industry over the higher costs, complex rules and mandatory requirements it imposes.

Wall Street Journal

Access to this article may be limited.

Reimbursement changes for CPT code 76942

In the December 2013 issue of Anthem's Network Update, you were notified of the following:

For claims with dates of service on or after March 17, 2014, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield (Anthem) in Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin (individually referred to herein as the Health Plan), will no longer reimburse CPT® code 76942 (Ultrasonic guidance for needle placement) when it is reported with 27096, 32554, 32555, 32556, 32557, 37760, 37761, 43232, 43237, 43242, 45341, 45342, 64479-64484, 64490-64495, 76975, 0213T-0218T, 0228T-0213T, 0232T, 0249T, and 0301T.

After our December 2013 issue published, the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) parenthetical guideline was updated to include three additional CPT codes: 10030, 19083 and 19285.

As a result, we are notifying you of the following:

• Effective March 17, 2014, the Health Plan will no longer reimburse CPT code 76942 when it is reported with 10030, 19083, 19285.
• Effective May 19, 2014, the Health Plan will no longer override the edit when Modifier 59 is appended to either 76942 and 10030, 19083 and 19285.

Anthem Network E-Update

AMA calls for ICD-10 delay

The costs to medical practices for implementing the International Classification of Diseases-10th Revision (ICD-10) coding system have been grossly underestimated, according to a recent study by Nachimson Advisors for the American Medical Association (AMA). The association is calling for a delay in the October 1, 2014, ICD-10 go-live date in order to give practices more time to prepare for the financial and administrative requirements.

Small practices can expect to spend between $56,639 and $226,105 and medium-size practices can spend between $213,364 and $824,735 to implement ICD-10. Expected costs include up to $100,000 in payment disruption for small practices, and up to $166,000 in productivity losses for medium-size practices. Large practices can expect to spend between $2 million and $8 million to implement the new coding system, according to the study. The study estimated that two-thirds of physicians will pay the upper range of cost estimates. In 2008, the AMA estimated that it would cost a small practice $83,290 to implement ICD-10.

Medical Economics

ICD-10 to Cost Physician Practices More Than $200k

The American Medical Association initiated a study conducted by the Nachimson Advisors on the cost of implementing ICD-10, which will be nearly three times that predicted in a 2008 study.

The ICD-10 code set includes 68,000 codes and will be a massive undertaking for the healthcare system. The new study predicts that costs incurred for small practices will be $56,639 to $226,105; medium sized practice will be $213,364 to $824,735; and large practice will be $2 million to $8 million.

Around two-thirds of physician practices are projected to fall into the upper range of current cost estimates. Practices will incur costs for software upgrades, training staff, practice assessments and testing. They will also experience payment disruption and loss of physician productivity during the switch.

According to CMS, denial rates could increase 100 to 200 percent during the early stages of ICD-10, and software vendor readiness for the October implementation date is lagging.

Becker Spine Review

At the ObamaCare Improv

President Obama predicted at the House Democratic retreat on Friday that "10 years from now, five years from now" people will look back on the Affordable Care Act as "a monumental achievement." He's right in the limited sense that, given the delays he has sanctioned so far, it will take years before anyone can tell if it works.

Now that we've had more time to parse this week's announcement of a second delay of the employer mandate, the political reason for the carve-out is becoming clearer. Far from the economic relief that the White House claimed, the rule is meant to turn back the lifeboats toward the capsized ObamaCare ocean liner so the women and especially the children can help with the rescue.

The statutory mandate requires businesses with the equivalent of 50 full-time employees based on a 30-hour work week to cover all workers or else pay a fine, starting Jan. 1, 2014. Mr. Obama is pushing the deadline back to 2016 for a new business category the White House waved into existence-those with fewer than 100 workers. Plus, all employers above that threshold will have to cover a mere 70% of their work force that year, not the law's pre-rewrite 100%.

Wall Street Journal

Access to this article may be limited.

'Doc Fix' To Heal Medicare Payment Flaw May Be In Congressional Homestretch

Using language seldom reserved for Congress, the nation's most powerful lobbies for physicians are heaping praise on rare bipartisan legislation heading to the floors of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives perhaps within the next month to fix a flaw in how doctors are paid by the federal Medicare health insurance program for the elderly.

After years of watching Congress delay, debate and dither on the repeal of Medicare's "sustainable growth rate," or SGR, reimbursement formula, a solution has passed three powerful Congressional committees and is headed possibly next month to likely passage.

Forbes

Ratings a Factor When Choosing Physician

Nearly three out of five people said a physician's rating on a website was at least a somewhat important factor when choosing a doctor, survey results published Tuesday found.

Of the more than 2,100 who responded, 19% (16%-23%, 95% CI) said a physician's rating on a reporting website was a "very important" factor in their choice, and another 40% (36%-44%, 95% CI) said it was "somewhat important," according to a research letter published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

While consumers rated other factors such as word of mouth and years of experience as more important in picking a doctor, 65% of respondents (61%-69%, 95% CI) were at least aware of online physician ratings, David Hanauer, MD, of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, and colleagues wrote.

MedPage Today