ASIPP 17th Annual Meeting - Survival Strategies for Interventional Pain Management

It has been a long, hard winter for most of us. But spring is coming soon and so is ASIPP's 17th Annual Meeting, April 9-11 in Orlando, Florida. Wouldn't it be nice to go somewhere warm after so much snow and ice?

So we have survived a rough winter, but will IPM survive this year and in the years to come? We will address survival strategies for interventional pain management. As the great Reverend Martin Luther King put it, we hope to find "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."

P. Christopher Music is one of our keynote speakers. The topic of his talk is certainly timely: "Survival of Independent Practice of Interventional Pain Management: Strategies for the Present and Future."

The theme of survival is also included in another of our featured speakers. John J. Nance will talk about "Surviving the Affordable Care Act Earthquake: Implications and Survival Strategies for Interventional Pain Management." He will also have another lecture titled, "Medical Errors: Prevention and Management in Interventional Pain Management."

Other key note speakers and their topics include:

• Dr. Devi Nampiaparimpil-"IPM in the Age of Explosive Information Technology and Media: Is It Indispensable or Irrelevant?"
• Dr. Laxmaiah Manchikanti-"Strategy Deficit for Interventional Pain Management: Overcoming the Obstacles"

Our breakout sessions have something for everyone. Breakout sessions will be devoted to

• Steroid Issues
• Drug Therapy
• Practice Management
• Neuromodulation
• Resident and Fellow Section
• Emerging Concepts and Controversies
• Evidence-base Medicine
• Advocacy

See Brochure for complete schedule. 

And doesn't your family deserve a break from such a harsh winter? Orlando is one of America's most family-friendly cities. Bring the family along and have a "working vacation." Don't forget your staff, either. Sign them up to attend too. The practice management sessions could be just what they need to help your practice survive in the next year and the years to come.

Survive and thrive with us in Orlando. We look forward to seeing you on April 9 in Orlando! Register today.

The Cabana Bay Beach Resort is ASIPP's overflow hotel. It is just a short walk for the Loews and joined by a walkway.

Universal Cabana Bay Beach Resort

6550 Adventure Way

Orlando, FL 32819

Registration Now Open for July Board Review Course in Chicago

Make plans today to attend the 2015 Board Review Course set for July 21-24 at the Palmer House in Chicago, IL.

This intensive and comprehensive high-quality review will prepare physicians appearing for the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)-Subspecialty Pain Medicine examination and for the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians (ABIPP)-Part 1 examination.

* A five-day review covering anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, psychology, ethics, interventional techniques, non-interventional techniques, controlled substances and practice management

* Unique lectures by experts in the field

* Extensive educational materials

Click HERE to Register:  

Last Chance to Take Epidural Steroid Survey

If you haven't already completed the survey on technical performance of Epidural Steroid, this is your final chance.

The benefit of completing this survey will be a peer-reviewed publication of the group data that informs the clinical community of the current practices that relate to performance of epidural steroid injections. The survey takes about 5-10 minutes to complete.

Here is a link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/STATEOFESI

ASIPP Abstract Deadline Thursday, Expands Number of Presenters

Make your plans now to participate in the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians abstract and poster presentation at the 17th Annual Meeting, April 9-11 in Orlando Florida.

This year's abstract session will be bigger and better. In response to your many suggestions, the top 20 posters will be selected by a panel to be on display through our new electronic poster presentations with Q & A time with poster presenters. They will also be published in Pain Physician journal.

In addition the Top 10 posters will be presented for judging during Friday's session. The top three abstracts will receive cash prizes.

Posters will be on display during the meeting on both Thursday and Friday in the exhibitor hall.

The abstract submission deadline has been extended to March 5, 2015.

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

As the Supreme Court hears arguments on Wednesday in the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act, health insurers are struggling to prepare for a decision that could unravel the marketplaces created by the law.

The ruling could come in June-but insurers must make regulatory filings before then about their 2016 plans. Utah's Arches Health Plan, for one, says it may propose an array of insurance product designs this spring. Then, depending on what the court decides, the insurer would be poised to drop some of them before they're finalized with regulators and offered to consumers. The insurer may also come up with two different sets of rates for next year, one for each potential court outcome.

Wall Street Journal

As they move to exchange patient information with hospitals and other health care partners, doctors are suffering sticker shock: The vendors of the health care software want thousands of dollars to unlock the data so they can be shared.

It may take an act of Congress to provide relief.

The fees are thwarting the goals of the $30 billion federal push to get doctors and hospitals to digitize health records. The exorbitant prices to transmit and receive data, providers and IT specialists say, can amount to billions a year. And the electronic health record industry is increasingly reliant on this revenue.

Politico

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced that providers, clearinghouses, and billing agencies for the most part successfully participated in the first ICD-10 end-to-end testing week.

The testing, conducted January 26 to February 3, included 661 providers as well as all Medicare Administrative Contractors and the Durable Medical Equipment MAC Common Electronic Data Interchange contractor, with billing companies submitting nearly 15,000 test claims.

Overall, participants in the week-long testing were able to successfully submit 81 percent of ICD-10 claims-14,929 test claims were received and 12,149 were accepted. Among the reasons for rejected claims: invalid submission of ICD-9 diagnosis or procedure code (3 percent), invalid submission of ICD-10 diagnosis or procedure code (3 percent), and non-ICD-10 related errors including issues setting up the test claims (13 percent). 

Health Data Management

WAKE FOREST, N.C.-Kim Jones, a substitute teacher, worries she will lose her health insurance if the Supreme Court strikes down a core provision of the Affordable Care Act in her state.

Lou Moshakos, the head of a restaurant company in nearby Raleigh, is also waiting for the court, but with a sense of optimism. A weakened law might remove the threat of fines if he doesn't provide insurance for his waiters.

On Wednesday, the court will hear oral arguments on a challenge to subsidies received by millions of Americans, in as many as 37 states, who purchased health insurance through a federally run exchange. The suit represents one of the biggest threats to the Obama administration's signature domestic achievement since it passed, rivaling a 2012 legal challenge the law survived.

Wall Street Journal

Access to this article may be limited.

Key Senate Republican committee chairman Orrin Hatch (UT), John Barrasso (WY), and Lamar Alexander (TN) have an op-ed in the Washington Post today saying they have a plan if millions of Americans lose their Obamacare subsidies this summer.

First, I have no idea how the Court will rule, likely in late June. While it is hard for me to see Chief Justice John Roberts voting to strike a major blow to the new health law now when he had that same chance three years ago and didn't, no one can predict what is going to happen this time.

But if the Court does throw the subsidies out in late June, it will mean that the Obamacare insurance subsidies would no longer be available to millions in as many as 37 federally-run states come August 1.

Health Policy and Market