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2017 ASIPP Washington Legislative trip

Set for Sept 12-13, 2017 

At no other time in the history of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians has it been more important for you, as members, to get involved in our advocacy efforts. Our specialty has been gravely affected by drastic and severe coverage cuts. These cuts so radical, they have hurt more than just our bottom lines; some practices and surgery centers have been forced to close their doors.  

The election of President Trump and his appointment of Representative Tom Price as Health and Human Services Secretary and Seema Verma to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have given us some hope and an opportunity to achieve some of our goals, and possibly reverse these cuts retroactively and reinstate the previous reimbursement or even improve reimbursement for 2018. 

Now is our chance! Let your voices be heard! 

We have scheduled a legislative conference September 12 and 13. To participate in this conference, you must to be in Washington on Tuesday, September 12 in order to attend the preparation session. Wednesday, September 13, we will head to Capitol Hill to hear speeches and meet with Senators and Representatives. Some appointments may continue through Thursday. If you would like to leave on Wednesday, please do not plan on leaving before 6 pm.  

Each member is expected to visit two senators and one member of Congress for a total of three visits.  

ASIPP will be booking a block of rooms for those who choose to attend. You will be responsible for travel expenses.  

Please let us know as soon as possible if you will be attending so that we can begin making the appointments. Contact Kasi Stunson kstunson@asipp.org.

  The Moral Assassination of Physicians Must Stop

As a physician, all the mounting negative news I read about doctors can’t help but hit me straight in the gut. This is especially true when reading about a tragic murder of a sweet and highly dedicated 32-year-old physician, Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee Tam and the serious injuries to five other physicians on June 30th at NYC’s Bronx Lebanon Hospital. Can you blame me for advocating for my esteemed colleagues? Everybody’s “Lives” seem to “matter” — what about physicians’ lives?

Don’t the ones who dedicate their own lives to saving others at least deserve to have their own lives matter? Seems not. Those who would benefit from the ever-growing imperfections and corruptions in health care the most, are the ones who can never succeed without a “fall guy (or gal)” who are usually doctors. So for a while now, I did the old fashioned “follow the money trail” analysis when I read any article involving just how bad, dishonest, corrupt and rich doctors are. The worse the stories are, the more deceitful the motives and true crimes they hide to blind the public and protect the real culprits.

Yet, it’s good for “them” to make our nation’s physicians look bad and disrespect them in every way they can — even in this tragic event where Tracy’s name or story is hardly mentioned.  

Doximity

  Trump declares opioid epidemic national emergency

President Donald Trump on Thursday declared the nation's opioid crisis a national emergency, according to The Washington Post.

The move comes after President Trump and HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, declined to declare a national emergency during a Tuesday press briefing on the epidemic. The Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, established by President Trump via an executive order in March, first recommended the president make such a declaration in its interim report released July 31.

"It's a national emergency. We're going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis," President Trump told reporters Thursday at his golf estate in Bedminster, N.J., according to the Post. "It is a serious problem, the likes of which we've never had. You know, when I was growing up, they had the LSD, and they had certain generations of drugs. There's never been anything like what's happened to this country over the last four or five years."  

Becker’s Hospital Review

  By the Numbers: The Real Opioid Death Rate

Study finds many states underestimate size of epidemic

There's been  more and  more pressure for the government to tackle the opioid epidemic head-on. But in a piece  published in the  American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Christopher Ruhm, PhD, of the University of Virginia, argues that there could be a big hangup: even with all the hand-wringing, we're still underestimating the size of the opioid epidemic.

That's because a big chunk of death certificates that list overdose as a cause of death -- 25% in 2008, and 20% in 2014 -- don't report what drug was to blame. The rate of the discrepancies varied dramatically from state to state, further exacerbating the problem at the local level.  

MedPage Today

  Tramadol Effective on Opioid Withdrawal Symptoms  

The extended-release (ER) formulation of tramadol was shown to be as effective as buprenorphine and more effective than clonidine for treating symptoms of opioid withdrawal, in a study published in  JAMA Psychiatry.1

The use of clonidine and buprenorphine in supervised withdrawal treatment of patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) is complicated by several factors. Clonidine may cause sedation and hypotension, requires multiple doses per day, and is not as effective as opioid agonists in reducing withdrawal symptoms.2 In contrast, buprenorphine requires only once-daily dosing and is more effective than  clonidine.3 Due to its abuse potential, however, in the United States, buprenorphine can only be used for OUD treatment with a specialized waiver.

Tramadol is a mild to moderate opioid agonist with low abuse potential, and the ER formulation can be administered once per day. Limited data suggest that tramadol may be as efficacious as buprenorphine and methadone in alleviating withdrawal symptoms.1    

Clinical Pain Advisor

  NCHS: Teen Opioid Overdoses Rise After Years of Decline

Trends in both the rate and cause of drug overdose deaths among U.S. teens have varied from 1999 to 2015, according to a  National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) report.

The rate of drug overdose deaths among adolescents ages 15-19 years more than doubled from 1999 (1.6 per 100,000) to 2007 (4.2 per 100,000). It then declined by 26% between 2007 and 2014 (3.1 per 100,000) and increased again in 2015 (3.7 per 100,000), reported Sally C. Curtin, of the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues in an  NCHS Data Brief.  

MedPage Today

  CMS cancels two mandatory pay models and scales back a third  

The CMS on Tuesday said it will toss two bundled-payment models and cut down the number of providers required to participate in a third, citing providers' requests to have more input in the models' designs.

The agency slashed the number of mandatory geographic areas participating in the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement, or CJR, model from 67 to 34, it announced in a proposed rulemaking Tuesday. Comments are due Oct. 17.

The agency is also proposing to exclude low-volume hospitals, or those with fewer than 20 joint replacements over three years, in the remaining mandatory areas starting in February 2018. However, the CMS will allow the newly excluded providers to voluntarily participate in the model if they so choose. Rural hospitals in the remaining mandatory markets also have the choice to participate.

Modern Healthcare

  Intrathecal Ziconotide Long-Term Efficacy and Safety for Severe Chronic Pain  

In patients with severe chronic pain refractory to conventional therapy, intrathecal ziconotide provided long-term pain relief, particularly when used as first-line intrathecal therapy. These results from the interim analysis of the Patient Registry of Intrathecal Ziconotide Management (PRIZM) were published in  Pain Practice.1

Intrathecal ziconotide is currently approved for the management of severe chronic pain in patients “for whom  intrathecal therapy is warranted, and who are intolerant of or refractory to other treatment, such as systemic analgesics, adjunctive therapies, or intrathecal morphine.”2    

  Medical Pot's Benefit for Chronic Pain, PTSD Still Hazy  

As many as four out of five people who sought prescriptions for medical marijuana did so for pain management, but there is currently little evidence showing plant-based cannabis products to be effective for most chronic pain, researchers reported.

Based on a systematic review, the present scientific evidence is too limited to judge the efficacy and safety of medical marijuana, which is now legal in 28 states and the District of Columbia, for chronic pain, stated Shannon Nugent, PhD, of the VA Portland Health Care System in Oregon, and colleagues, in the  Annals of Internal Medicine.    

MedPage Today

Interventional Pain Management Reports is an Open Access online journal, a peer-reviews journal dedicated to the publication of case reports, brief commentaries and reviews and letters to the editor. It is a peer-reviewed journal written by and directed to an audience of interventional pain physicians, clinicians and basic scientists with an interest in interventional pain management and pain medicine.  

We would like to invite you to submit research case reports, brief commentaries and reviews to Interventional Pain Management Reports Journal. Your article will be published ‘FREE’ of charge.  

Led by Editor in Chief: Kenneth Candido, MD, Chairman and Professor, Department of Anesthesiology , Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago, IPM Reports focuses on the promotion of  excellence in the practice of interventional pain management and clinical research.  

Interventional Pain Management Reports is an official publication of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) and is a sister publication of Pain Physician. Interventional Pain Management Reports Interventional Pain Management Reports is an open access journal, available online with free full manuscripts.    

The benefits of publishing in an open access journal that has a corresponding print edition journal are:  

• Your article will have the potential to obtain more citations.
• Your article will be peer-reviewed and published faster than other journals.
• Your article can be read by a potentially much larger audience compared with traditional subscription-only journals.  
• Open Access journals are FREE to view, download and to print.

So submit today your:

Case Reports

Technical Reports

Editorials

Short Perspectives

  Click HERE to read the Instructions for Authors for article submission    

Click HERE to submit a manuscript

  The NIPM-QCDR, a new offering from ASIPP®, is specifically tailored for interventional pain physicians. Your practice can use the NIPM-QCDR to fulfill the 2017 requirements of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).  

• Meet CMS MIPS mandates for Quality and Improvement Activities
• Receive credit toward Advancing Care Information
• Report on specialty-specific measures developed by ASIPP
• Understand and adjust your 2017 performance to optimize future CMS reimbursement with real-time reports available on-demand
• Be better prepared for CMS quality reporting in future years when penalties and incentives get even larger
• Improve the quality of patient care in the specialty of interventional pain managementLearn more and get started with 2017 reporting by visiting ArborMetrix.com/NIPM-QCDR.