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.

WASHINGTON—The latest Republican effort to reshape the nation’s health-care system teetered on the brink of collapse in the House, reflecting a new assertiveness by GOP centrists, a group that in recent years has rarely wielded such power.

Rep. Fred Upton (R., Mich.), an influential former committee chairman who is considering a Senate bid next year, said Tuesday he was opposed to the current version of the bill, delivering a major blow to the GOP leaders’ effort to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

GOP leaders said late Tuesday they were still sewing up support for the bill, but the ranks of Republicans opposed or undecided on the bill swelled to numbers almost large enough to derail it. As of Tuesday, at least 21 House Republicans said they wouldn’t support the legislation, with a similar number undecided. 

Wall Street Journal

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has created a centralized repository for public health agency and clinical data registry reporting to provide an additional, centralized source of information for eligible professionals, eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals.

This will help organizations seeking to comply with Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements. In the Stage 2 of Meaningful Use final rule, released in 2012, CMS stated it would develop this repository. 

For the Medicare or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs, the absence of an entry on the CMS Centralized Repository is not sufficient documentation for claiming an exclusion and does not prevent a provider from attesting to reporting to a registry, CMS said. Providers must still check with jurisdictional public health agencies or specialty societies to which they belong and document that information to satisfy Medicare or Medicaid reporting. 

Healthcare IT

BOULDER, Colo. — One by one, they entered a nondescript building on the eastern edge of town, 18,000 square feet with no signage out front. They came looking for relief. These nine former professional football players are part of the Denver Broncos Alumni Association. They played in nearly 700 NFL games combined and have enough aches and pains to keep an entire hospital staff busy.

“Every day, I wake up in pain, from my ankles to my neck,” said Ebenezer Ekuban, 40, who played defensive end for nine NFL seasons. “It’s part of the territory. I know what I signed up for.”

Retirement is a daily exercise in managing pain, which is what brought the men to the unmarked CW Hemp offices on a recent Friday for a tour and a firsthand lesson on the potential benefits of the marijuana plant. As the country’s discussion on the drug broadens, state laws change and public perception shifts, there’s a movement in football circles to change the way marijuana is viewed and regulated within the NFL, which still includes cannabis on its list of banned substances. 

Washington Post

The United States has intervened and filed a complaint in a lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UHG) that alleges UHG obtained inflated risk adjustment payments based on untruthful and inaccurate information about the health status of beneficiaries enrolled in UHG’s largest Medicare Advantage Plan, UHC of California, the Justice Department announced today. Yesterday’s action follows the government’s intervention in February of this year in United State ex rel. Poehling v. UnitedHealth Group. Inc., a related lawsuit in the Central District of California that also alleges that UHG defrauded the Medicare Program. government is scheduled to file a complaint in that matter no later than May 16. 

UHG is the nation’s largest Medicare Advantage Organization (MAO), with more than 50 Medicare Advantage and Drug Prescription plans providing healthcare services and prescription drug benefits to millions of Medicare beneficiaries throughout the United States. receives a monthly payment from Medicare for each beneficiary that is based, in significant part, on the health status of the beneficiary. 

US Dept of Justice

Prescription opioid exposure is common among US adolescents; however, medical and nonmedical use has declined recently and remained highly correlated over the past 4 decades, a recent study found. The study examined national trends in the medical and nonmedical use of prescription opioids among high school seniors between 1976 and 2015. 40 cohorts of nationally representative samples were used to examine self-reported medical and nonmedical use. Researchers found:

• Lifetime prevalence of medical use of prescription opioids peaked in both 1989 and 2002 and remained stable until a recent decline from 2013 through 2015.
• Lifetime nonmedical use of prescription opioids was less prevalent and highly correlated with medical use and prescription opioids over the 40-year study period.
• Long-term trends indicated that one-fourth of high school seniors self-reported medical or nonmedical use of prescription opioids.

  McCabe SE, West BT, Veliz P, McCabe VV, Stoddard SA, Boyd CJ. Trends in medical and nonmedical use of prescription opioids among US adolescents: 1976-2015.Pediatrics. 2017;139(4) e20162387. doi:10.1542/peds.2016-2387.

The website for Monarch Medical Group shows up as "no longer available" when one types in its URL into a web browser, but earlier versions are stored in the Wayback Machine of Internet Archives, shedding light on the company at the heart of the criminal case.

On a 2015 version of its website, Monarch described itself as "a leader in the ancillary business," focusing on orthopedic, pain management, and neurology practices that treat workers' compensation patients and those in preferred provider organization health plans. In addition to transdermal creams, medication dispensing, and urine tests, the company offered to perform billing and collection for client practices, as well as buy their accounts receivable in a transaction known as factoring.

A bio on company founder and CEO Christopher King stated that he had founded nine companies in industries ranging from healthcare to entertainment since 1999. "King pushes the limits of what is possible in business." 

MedScape