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 will focus 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 and regarding health care policy and ethics.

Click HERE

WEBINAR FEE:  First MIPS Webinar: $185
Attendee of January MIPS Webinar: $ 150
ASIPP Member: $150    

WEBINAR DATE: February 22, 2017 TIME:   3:30pm-5:00pm

SPEAKER: Deborah H. Tracy, MD, MBA  

Final Rule of the CMS Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, MIPS, and Alternative Payment Models, APMs, was published on 10/14/16, and is ~ 2,300 pages.  Now identified as the Quality Payment Program, QPP, it is extensive in scope to reward or penalize providers for performing certain activities in four performance categories.  The four categories are: (1) Quality, which will replaces PQRS, (2) Cost, attributed to Medicare providers by a complex set of statistical formulas replacing the Value Modifier (3) Improvement Activities, a new category of 90+ undertakings and (4) Advancing Care Information, which replaces Meaningful Use.  The four categories result in a final score of between 0 to 100 points.  

Depending on the provider's final score, a penalty/reward is assessed, or the provider remains neutral.  For 2017 the penalty is 4%, but the bonus could be 3 to 4 times that amount. Physicians must educate themselves and their practice managers on how to understand and potentially achieve high scores in the new Quality Payment Program and avoid costly penalties in their Medicare Part B claims. Although Cost will have a weight of 0% for 2017 the Quality Resource Use Report, QRUR, will continue to be calculated for providers. This report emphasizes the cost of a providers care compared to his peers. An understanding of this report will enhance a provider's ability to understand how he can potentially improve decision making to increase quality and decrease cost.

Click HERE to Registration and for other information  

Just Released! January, 2017 ASIPP® Podcast   

On the January 2017 podcast we'll hear from Dr. Robert Wachter, one of the Keynote Speakers at our upcoming Annual Meeting; in the news segment we'll have stories about newborns addicted to opioids, what part of the brain affects the placebo effect, a potential answer for diabetic neuropathy, and much more; and we'll wrap things up with a study that claims that how much you drive affects how much you weigh.    

Click here to listen to the January, 2017 ASIPP® Podcast

Many of you probably have not seen the cuts implemented at ambulatory surgery centers effective January 1st for epidurals (16.3%), facet joint injections (25%), adhesiolysis (25%), and sacroiliac joint injections (16%). 

We need to act on this issue to not only reverse the cuts for this year, but also proactively approach the problem for next year.  And with a new Administration now in office, we have a chance to reverse these cuts retroactively and reinstate or improve the previous reimbursement for 2018.  

ASIPP will be assisting in this endeavor; however, the main impetus will be from the Society of Interventional Pain Management Surgery Centers (SIPMS). If you are a surgery center owner, or have significant interest in one, please complete the MEMBERSHIP FORM. 

You can also contribute through the ASIPP-PAC FORM.   

And if you know of anyone else with ownership in a surgery center, please send their information to Savannah Gold at sgold@asipp.org. Be sure to include the name of the contact person, name of the surgery center, and any other contact information

HealthDay News -- Short-term memory loss may be yet another price of America's opioid addiction epidemic, according to a report published in the January 27 issue of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.1  

Massachusetts health officials reported a cluster of 14 patients in that state who experienced problems remembering things just told to them (sudden-onset amnesia). The patients also had abnormal results on magnetic resonance imaging brain scans.   Thirteen of the 14 patients were either actively using substances or had a history of substance abuse. Twelve said they had used opioids. Six of those with amnesia also said they had used benzodiazepines. Another 5 of those with amnesia had used cocaine, according to the report.  

Clinical Pain Advisor

Spinal cord stimulation was found to help decrease or stabilize opioid use in patients with chronic pain.  A spinal cord stimulation system consists of an implanted device that transmits low levels of electrical energy to nerve fibers, interrupting pain signals as they travel to the brain to reduce pain sensation. 

Researchers evaluated opioid usage data in 5,476 chronic pain patients prior to and after receiving spinal cord stimulation implant by assessing private and Medicare insurance claims data.1 They found that spinal cord stimulation therapy was effective for patients at any level of opioid usage before implantation. The average daily opioid use was lowered or stabilized for 70% of patients receiving a successful spinal cord stimulation system vs patient use of opioids before an implant.      

Clinical Pain Advisor