Register Today: Spinal & NonSpinal Interventional Techniques Offered Just One Time This Year: June 20-21

  

DESCRIPTION

This 2-day comprehensive review course and cadaver workshop on spinal interventional techniques (basic and intermediate levels) and non-spinal interventional techniques. Participants experience a comprehensive and intense learning opportunity, focusing on interventional pain management techniques.

 

TARGET AUDIENCE/PURPOSE

This intensive review course in spinal and non-spinal interventional techniques is planned as a CME activity for interventional pain physicians-for review, skills improvement or to fullfil state board requirements for CME hours.

 

 OBJECTIVES

After this course, participants should be able to:

- Describe the delivery of multiple aspects of interventional pain management.

- Review multiple areas of interventional pain management including spinal and non-spinal techniques.

- Demonstrate skills through interactive hands-on cadaver workshop.

 

OUTCOME

Physicians should be able to integrate multiple aspects of spinal and non-spinal techniques in interventional pain management in treating their patients so that patients have better outcomes and reduced side effects.

 

UP TO 15.75 AMA PRA CATEGORY 1 CREDITS™

 

ACCOMMODATIONS

CHASE PARK PLAZA

212 N. Kingshighway, St. Louis, MO 63108 - (877) 587-2427

Each tastefully decorated space welcomes you with a comforting array of amenities and personal touches, including fine cotton sheets, generously sized towels and pre­mium toiletries.The discounted nightly rate of $160 is available through May 30, 2014 or until sold out which ever occurs first. Ask for the ASIPP room block when registering.

 

CLICK HERE for Brochure

 

CLICK HERE to Register

Senate Approves 'Doc Fix', ICD-10 Delay

The Senate voted Monday evening to pass a so-called "doc fix" bill approved last week by the House. The vote suspends Medicare's sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula that would have cut the physician reimbursement rate this year by nearly 24 percent. Congress had until today to pass the legislation that averts the payment cut and further delays Medicare cuts to physicians until April 1, 2015

This is the 17th time Congress has acted since 2003 to temporarily delay cuts to doctor reimbursements under Medicare.

Senators voted 64 to 35 to pass the bill, which delays the cuts for one year, in a vote that came after House Republicans used a rare voice-vote to get the measure through the lower chamber with enough support.

The legislation also includes a provision to delay the ICD-10 implementation deadline by one year to Oct. 1, 2015.

President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law before midnight, when the reimbursement cuts were set to go into effect.

Poll: Dems rally behind ObamaCare

The public remains split over ObamaCare, but Democrats have rallied behind the law to keep support steady in March, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released on Monday.

Forty-nine percent support the law, against 48 percent who oppose it, the survey said. That's up from 46 percent who said they supported it last month, and 49 percent who said they opposed it. It's an even bigger climb from the 40-57 split in the same poll from November.

Support for the Affordable Care Act is buoyed by Democrats, whose support for the law bounced from 65 percent in January to 76 percent in March.

HealthWatch

Retirement and health care: Concerns are off the charts

Many people nearing retirement don't have a good feeling about whether they have saved enough to make it through retirement.

Add to that worries about health care costs in retirement, and those concerns are off the chart. They should be.

"I've seen people pay as much as $5,000 to $15,000 a month for their medical care in retirement," says Katherine Dean, national director of wealth planning for Wells Fargo Private Bank.

USA Today

Was Obamacare Worth It? How Many of the Previously Uninsured Have Really Signed Up?

Health insurance reform was long overdue. But did it need to be done the way the architects of the Affordable Care Act did it?

Obamacare was enacted, and the private health insurance market fundamentally changed, so that we could cover millions of people who previously couldn't get coverage.

Are enough people getting coverage who didn't have it before to justify the sacrifices the people who were already covered--in the individual, small group, and large employer market--are making or will make?

I will suggest the country will never really be able to judge how good or how bad Obamacare is until that question is answered.

Health Policy and Market

The Obamacare report card

Time's up, Obamacare. Ready for your grades?

After six months, the first enrollment season is coming to an end. So it's time to take stock, with POLITICO's report card that covers the highs and lows of the rollout.

If you're a supporter of the law, you might be cringing right now - you know the areas where the grade is not going to be good. It's pretty obvious that the Obama administration wasn't ready for the launch, despite three and a half years to prepare. The political messaging hasn't impressed anyone; Democrats are scampering away from what was supposed to be a legacy achievement. No one's going to forget that notion that everyone could keep their plans.

Politico

Health-Law Sign-Ups Top Six Million, White House Says

The White House said the Affordable Care Act crossed a key threshold as it announced Thursday that more than six million people have signed up for private health coverage through state and federal insurance exchanges.

The number, released days before the Monday deadline for most people to enroll for this year, surpasses the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's revised estimate that six million people would enroll in private health plans for 2014-down from its initial forecast of seven million.

But left unclear was how many of those signing up had been uninsured-a key aim of the law-and whether they include many of the young and mostly healthy Americans needed to keep costs in check, and whether those signing up have actually paid premiums to bring the insurance coverage into effect.

Wall Street Journal

AMA issues new salvo on ACA's 90-day premium grace period

While the American Medical Association (AMA) is fighting to reverse the financial risk to physicians over the controversial 90-day premium grace period in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it just released a series of resources to help doctors if confronted with policy jumpers.

Under the rule, patients who fall behind on their monthly premiums will still be able to keep their coverage for 90 days. During the first 30 days, insurers will be responsible for reimbursing claims for services provided to the patient. But during the final 60 days, insurers may deny claims, and physicians will be responsible for collecting payments directly from patients.

The Obama administration has announced that more than five million people have signed up for insurance on the insurance exchanges. But insurance industry officials told Politico that as of mid-March, between 15% and 20% of people who have signed up have not paid their first monthly premium.

Medical Economics

Following the Money: Gold in Ivory Towers

Academics who moonlight for drug companies have faced intense scrutiny in recent years, but new research suggests much larger sums of money are being paid to their bosses -- the leaders of medical schools and hospitals who serve on drug company boards.

Looking at the world's 50 largest drug companies, researchers found that 40% had at least one board member who held a leadership position at a U.S. academic medical center -- including medical school deans, chief executive officers, department chairs, and university presidents.

The average annual compensation from the drug companies was $313,000, according to the paper published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

MedPage Today

Better Quality Sleep Promotes Daytime Physical Activity in Patients with Chronic Pain? A Multilevel Analysis of the Within-Person Relationship

An article by Tang et al published in the Februarion issue of the open access journal PLOS One explores the relationship between sleep and chronic pain.

PLOS one