ASIPP 17th Annual Meeting in Orlando Coming Up Soon! Register Today!

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

Alternate Hotels

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Universal Studios Orlando
5780 Major Blvd, Orlando, FL 32819

Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Universal Studios Orlando
5905 South Kirkman Road, Orlando, FL 32819

Hyatt Place Hotel Universal Orlando
5895 Caravan Court, Orlando, FL 32819

SPRING IS almost here: time for the annual Washington ritual known as the "doc fix." In 1997, Congress tried to limit Medicare spending by linking the growth of physician reimbursements to that of the overall economy. This "sustainable growth rate" worked fine so long as economic growth outpaced medical costs; then the 2001 recession hit, and doctors howled at the prospect of cuts. Congress enacted a temporary repeal - the first of 17 such short-term doc fixes, the cumulative cost of which now exceeds $150 billion. The current doc fix expires March 31, at which point a mandatory 21 percent cut in payments to physicians would kick in.

Congress isn't going to let that happen, which raises two questions: What will it do, and what should it do? The path of least resistance would be the well-trod one, passing yet another short-term patch. Yet there is increasing, bipartisan discussionof, at long last, a permanent solution. The basic idea would be to keep reimbursement rates at current levels while reforming the fee-for-service payment system, so doctors could stay within the spending limitations while maintaining current levels of care and, crucially, keeping their practices solvent. The Congressional Budget Office pegs the 10-year cost at $174.5 billion. Of that, $37 billion would pay for systemic reforms; the remainder would represent an increase in projected spending over what would occur if the SGR were actually enforced.

Washington Post

March/April Pain Physician Article Address Doc Fix Issue

In the current issue of Pain Physician that will be available next week online, two articles address the issue of  a Doc Fix, SGR and ICD-10.

by Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, Frank JE Falco, Md, Vijay Singh, Md, and Joshua A. Hirsch, MD

First, Do No Harm by Adopting Evidence-Based Policy Initiatives: The Overselling of ICD-10 by Congress with High Expectations

by Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, Frank JE Falco, MD, Standiford Helm II, MD and Joshua A. Hirsch, MD

Registration Now Open for July Board Review Course in Chicago

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:  

ASIPP To Offer Controlled Substance Management, Coding, Compliance and Practice Management Courses in Chicago

The ASIPP Comprehensive Review Courses and Exams in Controlled Substance Management and Coding, Compliance, and Practice Management will be held in Chicago, Illinois, on July 22-24, 2015.

The Coding, Compliance and Practice Management is so beneficial to practices, both office-based and ASCs, that many physicians send their staff early to keep them current on the cutting edge aspects of practice management. These intensive review courses are designed to present interventional pain management specialists and other health care providers an in-depth review of multiple areas of interventional pain management-the areas we were never taught, yet are crucial for our survival.

 The course features many nationally recognized experts in pain management billing and coding and practice management as well as controlled substance management. In today's environment of regulations and litigations, you can't afford not to broaden your knowledge and refresh your skills in these areas.

 * Discuss documentation

 * Review practice management topics

* Discuss coding and billing

* Examine compliance issues

CLICK HERE to register for Coding, Compliance and Practice Management Course

 * Review basic science and core concepts

* Discuss pharmacology

* Identify clinical use and effectiveness

 * Identify substance abuse

* Discuss topics with documentation, regulatory issues, legal issues, and ethical issues

CLICK HERE to register for Controlled Substance Management Course

 In addition to the review course, the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians (for physicians) and the American Association of Allied Pain Management Professionals (for non-physicians) offers the opportunity for examination in order for physicians to obtain competency certification to and non-physicians to obtain associate certificates in Controlled Substance Management and Coding, Compliance, and Practice Management.

Accommodations The Palmer House Hotel 17 East Monroe Street, Chicago, IL 60603 | Phone: 312-726-7500 http://palmerhousehiltonhotel.com

This webinar will include information on: Choosing a 'right sized' EMR for your practice, Implementation process and the technology choices available, CMS Incentive Program, Hardship application and exclusions by specialty, Privacy & Security and more. With a new year approaching CMS will be mandating a schedule that will penalize providers who are not using and EMR. Considerations that will be considered are:

• What is an EMR and why do you need it?
• Pain points of an implementation that include patient interaction
• Increased loss of revenue every year you are not on an EMR
• Different types of EMR's (on-site or hosted)
• Medicaid incentives still around in 2015 for implementation
• Improving patient outcomes from shared EMR systems
• Security and Privacy of your 'Electronic Chart'
• Patients want to be 'connected' and how to control this
• Improved Revenue Cycle through an EMR

Beginning in 2015 CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) will be penalizing Medicare eligible Providers that are not meaningful users of a Certified EMR under the Medicare EHR incentive Programs. Payment adjustments start January 1, 2015 and will increase every year a provider is not using and EMR.

If your office or providers are not using and EMR, not happy with the current EMR or need to understand how to maximize EMR capabilities please attend this webinar.

WEBINAR FEE: $125

WEBINAR DATE:April 2, 2015

TIME: 11:00am-12:00pm CST

LENGTH:60 Minutes

SPEAKER: Anthony Patane, PMP, Information Technology/ HIPAA Security Officer

As the healthcare reimbursement shifts from volume to value progresses, many practices are actively reviewing their current compensation plans in connection to accountable care and similar models. Although physician employment was once convolutely tied to fixed salaries, current physician compensation models require rapid realignment from productivity to value-based reimbursement to ensure forthcoming success.

Health systems need to adapt to remain on target with reimbursement goals.

RevCycle Intelligence

The two U.S. House committees with jurisdiction over repairing the SGR system for compensating Medicare physicians issued a statement late Friday announcing "active discussions on a bipartisan basis."

Both the Ways and Means and the Energy and Commerce committees said their ongoing work follows closed-door negotiations between the offices of House Speaker John Boehner (D-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Neither Boehner nor Pelosi offered any comment on the discussions last week.

Medical Practice Insider

Abuse-Deterrent Opioids Prevent Users From Intensifying High

The rise in opioid-related deaths has many in the medical community outraged over practitioners prescribing opioids for chronic pain. Some, mainly those in pain management, believe this practice is justified. Others claim there are better alternatives. Pharmaceutical companies, on the other hand, are taking a shot at the opioid epidemic by promoting opioids with abuse-deterrent properties.

A new study conducted by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicinein St. Louis revealed that abuse-deterrent opioid medications can cut down on prescription drug abuse. The report, recently published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), showed that 25% of drug abusers were still able to abuse OxyContin with abuse-deterrent properties. Researchers surveyed nearly 11,000 drug users at 150 drug-treatment facilities in 48 states.

The purpose of altering the original formulation of OxyContin is to prevent abusers from intensifying their high. Addicts will sometimes crush OxyContin to snort the powder. They will also dissolve the pills in liquid to inject the drug

Forbes

UPLAND, Calif.-From the time he was a young man coming of age in the 1970s, Mike Massey could have served as a poster child for his generation, the baby boomers. He grew his hair long to the dismay of his father, surfed, played in rock bands and says he regularly got high on marijuana and cocaine.

The wild times receded as he grew older. In his 30s, he stopped using drugs altogether, rose into executive positions with the plumbers and pipe fitters union, bought a house in this Los Angeles suburb and started a family. But at age 50, Mr. Massey injured his knee running. He took Vicodin for the pain but soon started using pills heavily, mixing the opioids with alcohol, he said.

Wall Street Journal

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is launching a "Next Generation" accountable care organization (ACO) program that the agency hopes will be more attractive to Medicare providers, a CMS official said Monday.

When CMS launched its Pioneer and Shared Savings ACO programs, "we started to hear from stakeholders that [said], 'You really need a next-generation model,'" explained CMS chief medical officer Patrick Conway, MD, during a webinar sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists. The new model "offers more predictable financial targets and enables providers and beneficiaries great opportunities to coordinate care."

One unique factor about the new ACO model is that beneficiaries can choose whether or not to be aligned with it, while still having free choice of providers, said Conway, who also heads the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at CMS. In addition, the model "enables [the] ACOs to provide a higher level of care coordination and also allows us to do things like potentially lower copays -- or have no copays -- for high-value services."

MedPage Today

Doctors who use tablet computers while standing could be avoiding some physical aggravation.

New research shows that seated use of a tablet computer significantly increases the demand on neck muscles. That's important because the flexed head and neck postures that occur during tablet use are often implicated in neck pain.

A study published last month in the journal Ergonomics evaluated the biomechanics of the head-neck system during tablet use under a variety of conditions. It measured gravitational demand, which takes into account the weight of the head and muscle capacity, using a musculoskeletal model.

Former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint is president of The Heritage Foundation.

We've heard a lot about how Obamacare's Medicaid expansion will be costly to states in the long run. Yet this hasn't stopped some governors, who know that taking more money from the federal government makes their budgets look good (in the short term), while making themselves appear compassionate.

But we haven't heard enough about how expanding Medicaid will cause permanent damage to America, our health care system and our citizens.

For decades, government plans such as Medicare and Medicaid have typically paid doctors and hospitals less than private plans, and even less than the actual costs of the services in some cases. Health care providers covered their losses by raising prices to patients with private insurance.

Cincinnati.com