Last night, the Senate voted 92-8 to permanently repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for physician reimbursement under Medicare by passing H.R. 2, the "Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act," or MACRA. Two of the three presidential candidates voted against the bill (Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida voted against the bill. Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted for it).

Although six amendments were considered on the floor, none reached the threshold required for passage. As a result, the Senate passed bill was identical to the version that passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming 392-37 margin on March 26.

The bill is expected to be sent to the White House tonight, where President Obama has said he would sign it into law.

Medicare should begin processing claims tomorrow for services provided in April at the rates that were effective before the 21 percent cut was scheduled to take effect.  Under the provisions of H.R. 2, the fee schedule conversion factor will be increased by 0.5 percent on July 1, 2015, and by another 0.5 percent on January 1, 2016.

Medicine's united voice was instrumental to our success.  We encourage ASIPP members to express appreciation to Senators and Representatives who voted for H.R. 2.  It is a complex bill that reflects bipartisan compromise.

We will keep you updated on the bill as more news becomes available.

Click HERE to read bill 

Interventional Pain Management Faces Major Challenges

Interventional pain management-the field of helping patients with acute or chronic pain without doing major surgery--is a both a growing specialty and one that is under assault. 

At the annual American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP), organization leaders and outside supporters urged the group's 4,300 members to become grass-roots lobbyists and work toward what they said are continuing threats to their livelihood, particularly the ability of pain physicians to be independent practitioners. 

"We're not needle jockeys and we're not running pill mills," said Harold Dalton, DO, president of the Florida Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, kicking off the annual meeting of the group, held this year in Orlando, FL, "We are doing right for our patients." The group's immediate agenda is to reverse reiumburse cuts to epidural pain-management procedures, adjust CPT codes to reflect the costs of providing service, work to assure that the Medicare Sustained Growth Rate (SGR ) fix is passed by the US Senate, and to fight changes in ICD-10 codes that would have a negative impact on the profession. 

The group has already beat back a plan by the US Food and Drug Administration to issue a warning that epidural procedures can cause serious injuries, one the group's members say is groundless.
 

MD News

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

 MEETING LINKS  |  REGISTRATION  |  BROCHURE  |  PALMER HOUSE  |  

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.

Click HERE for Reservations at The Palmer House Hotel  

17 East Monroe Street, Chicago, IL 60603 | Phone: 312-726-7500

CMS announced Monday that Medicare Advantage payment rates will increase by 1.25 percent on average in 2016.

Here are 10 things to know about next year's payment rates.

1. The announcement was unexpected given CMS' February proposal that suggested health insurers offering Medicare Advantage plans would see their rates cut by approximately 0.95 percent in 2016.
2. Under the finalized payment rates, health insurers will see Medicare Advantage payment rates go up 3.25 percent on average after expected growth in plan risk scores due to coding are factored in, according to CMS.
3. The rate increase was based on a higher estimate of traditional Medicare spending and does not stem from a change in policy, according to CMS.
4. UnitedHealth - the top provider of Medicare Advantage plans last year - stands to get the biggest revenue boost from the increased rates, according to Bloomberg.
5. Along with the payment rate increases, CMS announced the star rating system used to assess the quality performance of plans will be updated in 2016 to "strengthen the accuracy of the evaluation system."
6. Insurers will also be required to take steps to ensure their physician and provider directories are up-to-date, according to CMS.
7. CMS will also begin working with insurers offering Medicare Advantage plans to collect information on their adoption of value-based payment models.
8. Medicare Advantage enrollment has increased by 42 percent since the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010. Nearly 30 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan.
9. "The finalized policies will continue to strengthen the growing Medicare Advantage program, and continue the successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act's reforms that improve quality and provide greater protections for beneficiaries and value for taxpayers," CMS said in the announcement.
10. CMS said the changes will help align the Medicare Advantage program with the goal HHS announced earlier this year of having 30 percent of Medicare payments based on how well patients are cared for in 2016 with that number increasing to 50 percent by 2018.

Becker's Hospital Review

Feeling so happy you just can't stand it? You might want to pop some acetaminophen.

A new study has found that acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol, most forms of Midol and more than 600 other medicines, reduces not only pain but pleasure, as well.

The authors of the study, which was published this week in Psychological Science, say that it was already known that acetaminophen blunted psychological pain. But their new research led them to the conclusion that it also blunted joy -- in other words, that it narrowed the range of feelings experienced.

CNN

New Meaning for Meaningful Use?

WASHINGTON -- In an apparent response to providers' concerns with the Meaningful Use program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a proposed rule to simplify meaningful use.

The aim of the new rule is "to align Stage 1 and Stage 2 objectives and measures with the long-term proposals for Stage 3, to build progress toward program milestones, to reduce complexity, and to simplify providers' reporting," the agency announced Friday in a fact sheet. "These modifications would allow providers to focus more closely on the advanced use of certified EHR technology to support health information exchange and quality improvement."

Premera Blue Cross, which operates in Washington state and Alaska, has reported learning about a breach of 11 million of its records on Jan. 29 - the same day that Anthem, Inc., also said it learned that data for some 80 million individuals had been compromised (RPP 3/15, p. 1).

Thus far, federal and state officials - and Premera itself - haven't linked the two breaches publicly, although non-governmental IT experts have.

The Premera attack - announced by the insurer on March 17 - and Anthem's are both believed to be the work of "Deep Panda," part of a larger group suspected of being sponsored by the Chinese government. The group reportedly has a "five-year" plan of attack that names health care as one of its targeted business sectors.

AIS Health

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ICD-10: Physicians Remain Skeptical About Oct. 1 Start

For years, physicians' associations have successfully lobbied the federal government to delay the implementation of the ICD-10 diagnostic coding set.

Now, with the ICD-10 implantation date looming on Oct. 1, a survey of more than 1,100 physicians, payers, and vendors from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchangefinds that the biggest obstacle to industry readiness is the belief that there will be another delay.

MedPage Today

Medicine has changed a lot in the past 100 years. But medical training has not.

Until now. Spurred on by the need to train a different type of doctor, medical schools around the country are tearing up the textbooks and starting from scratch.

Most medical schools still operate under a model pioneered in the early 1900s by an educator namedAbraham Flexner.

MedPage Today

When physicians write about patients and clinical encounters, are they bound by the same bedside obligations to respect privacy and confidentiality? Physician and narrative medicine scholar Rita Charon suggests that patients own their stories, and for physicians to write about a patient encounter informed consent must be obtained. 

The physician/writer Richard Selzer expresses an alternative viewpoint: his life takes place in the "hospital or an operating room or the bedside of a patient and therefore, to ask me not to use the material would in fact [ be] to censor me, to silence me as an artist." Journals have a range of informed consent and permission requirements as a precondition to submission and publication of medical narratives involving potentially identifiable patients. As a writer and a physician, I've struggled with how best to balance my dual and dueling duties to patients, readers, and the creative work.

MedPage Today