American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians | September 25, 2019
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2019 ASIPP Washington Legislative Meeting and Capitol Hill visits
set for October 15-16, 2019  
Now is our chance! Let your voices be heard!  
 
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. Despite o ur  ongoing, tireless efforts, with some improvements, our specialty continues to be affected by coverage and reimbursement issues. These issues continue to hurt more than just our bottom lines; some practices and surgery centers have been forced to close their doors or sell to others.
 
Our legislative issues include:

1.        Inappropriate Reimbursement Patterns of Medicare Advantage Plans
2.        Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force Report
3.        Payment Issues Related to Dual Eligible Beneficiaries under Medicare and Medicaid

We have scheduled a legislative conference for October 15-16, 2019. To participate in this conference, you must to be in Washington DC on Tuesday, October 15 in order to attend the preparation session Tuesday evening. Then, on Wednesday, October 16, we will head to Capitol Hill for breakfast and congressional speeches. You will be able to fly out late on Wednesday evening. 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 has booked a block of rooms at the beautiful Melrose Georgetown Hotel, less than a mile from the Hill. 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. Please bring your family, friends and employees.
 
Please contact Melinda Martin, ASIPP Director of Operations, at  mmartin@asipp.org  if you are interested in attending.

HOTEL  |  REGISTRATION  | 
Massachusetts Introduces Onerous Law

A bill has been introduced in Massachusetts that could make physicians responsible for those in their care becoming addicted to opioids.

Bill H.3656 is titled “ An Act requiring practitioners to be held responsible for patient opioid addiction."
Specifically in the bill it states:

A practitioner, who issues a prescription for a controlled substance placed in Schedule II, which contains an opiate, shall be liable to the patient for whom the written prescription was written, for the payment of the first 90 days of in-patient hospitalization costs if the patient becomes addicted and is subsequently hospitalized.

AGS: Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Med Use in Older Adults Updated

The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) has published the 2019 Beers Criteria which includes updated information on medications that may be potentially inappropriate for use in older adults. The entire guideline has been published in the  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society .

The AGS Beers Criteria is comprised of 5 lists: Drugs that should be avoided by most older people; drugs that should be avoided by older people with specific health conditions; drugs that should be avoided in combination with other treatments because of drug-drug interactions; drugs that should be used with caution, and drugs that should be dosed differently or avoided in those with reduced renal function.

Over 1400 clinical trials and research studies were reviewed by a panel of 13 experts to develop the new guideline. Specific changes for 2019 include the addition of 30 drugs or drug classes to avoid in older patients, 40 medications that should be used with caution or avoided in certain patients because of comorbidity, and several changes to drugs that were previously considered inappropriate and were either removed from the list or moved to a different category.

MPR
Integrate “Illinois the Prescription Monitoring Program data” with your EMR

The Illinois Prescription Monitoring Program is working with EMR vendors and patient care locations across the state of Illinois to integrate the Prescription Monitoring Program data into the daily workflow The Department of Human Services and Bureau of Pharmacy and Clinical Support now has the ability to integrate the PMP data with your electronic health record system. The team currently has integrations active with over 25 EMR vendors and many more in process. Register your office with our team at:  https://www.ilpmp.org/PMPnowRegistration.php 

What does this mean to you? Fast and easy access to the PMP data.  The integration of the PMP data into your EMR allows you to run a search from within the patient record you are viewing in the EMR. The workflow steps may vary by EMR, but all integrations alleviate the need to use your PMP user name and password. Entering in the patient demographics is also a thing of the past. 

Department of Human Services
Bureau of Pharmacy and Clinical Support
Prescription Monitoring Program
JUNE 2020 ABIPP EXAMS
AND COMPETENCY EXAMS
June 27 - June 28, 2020 | Memphis, TN
 
The American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians ( ABIPP ) has developed certification programs that recognize accepted levels of knowledge and expertise in the interventional pain management
profession, with the goal of improved patient care. Hundreds of qualified physicians have made the commitment to become ABIPP certified.
ABIPP now offers the only competency certification program for regenerative medicine.
 
For complete information about the examination requirements and to obtain an application packet, visit www.abipp.org or call 270-554-9412 x4217 or by email at summer@asipp.org.
 
June 27
ABIPP Part I  
Combined CSM/CCPM Exam for ABIPP Path
Competency Exam in Controlled Substance Management
Competency Exam in Coding, Compliance, and
Practice Management

June 27-28
ABIPP Part II  
ABIPP Competency Exam
Regenerative Medicine Competency Exam
Endoscopic Lumbar Decompression Competency Exam


939 Ridge Lake Blvd. | Memphis, TN 38120
 
FDA Guidance on New Opioids Roasted at Hearing
Some say it's too restrictive, others that it doesn't go far enough

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Chronic pain patients, family members who have lost loved ones to the opioid crisis, and industry watchdogs offered varying viewpoints at an FDA public hearing on standards for evaluating future opioids, as well as incentivizing the development of new treatments for pain.
While some at the meeting aired concerns about access, others took the FDA task for not acting sooner to overhaul the opioid approval process. One speaker labelled a draft guidance released in June "woefully inadequate."

The hearing Tuesday was called to discuss the draft guidance, which outlines the benefit-risk framework the FDA plans to use when deciding whether new opioid analgesic drugs should be approved.
The guidance details the information a new drug application (NDA) for an opioid analgesic should contain. In addition to benefits and risks, the FDA will take into account "the broader public health effect of opioid analgesic drugs" as a factor in its approval decision, as well as any properties of that drug intended to curb negative public health impacts, according to the draft.

Dr. Alan Kaye Accepts Position of Provost LSU Shreveport
 
Dr. Alan Kaye, Editor in Chief of Pain Physician journal and the Department Head of Anesthesiology for the LSU School of Medicine, has accepted a position at the LSU Shreveport School of Medicine where he will soon become Provost, Chief Academic Officer, and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs. 
 
Dr. Kaye was Department Head for Anesthesiology at Texas Tech for six years before coming to LSU. He was appointed as Department Head at LSU in January 2005, a time when the department did not have a residency program. He is credited with getting the residency program reinstated and fully accredited at LSU, and he has served as Program Director in addition to being Department Head. He has authored hundreds of journal articles and book chapters, and the department has grown under his direction.  
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. 

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

PHILADELPHIA -- Concerns about nurse practitioners deciding on credentials and hospital privileges for family physicians were on the minds of delegates at the  American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) annual meeting  here.

"For all these years, we as a specialty have been trying to protect the scope of our practice -- I don't want to be credentialed by a non-family physician," Jose David, MD, from Albany, New York, said Monday during a reference committee meeting.



Doctors and patients tired of insurance hassles, Verma says

CMS Administrator Seema Verma on Tuesday told insurers that they need to support the Trump administration's policies on transparency, value-based payments, interoperability and data access, cautioning them that the health insurance industry is under threat from disgruntled patients, doctors and politicians.

Speaking at the America's Health Insurance Plans' 2019 National Conference on Medicare, Verma said that patients are tired of high costs,  surprise bills  and a system that's too complex and difficult to navigate. She also noted that patients are unhappy with the hassles of insurance and worried that their claims would be denied, citing the low customer satisfaction ratings among private payers.



2019 MIPS Reporting? Start Now.
MIPS-eligible clinicians must report a full year of data. Don’t fall behind – keep up with NIPM-QCDR.
 
MIPS 2019 has brought larger payment adjustments and greater reporting requirements, including a 365-day performance period for the Quality and Cost categories. The sooner you start your MIPS reporting for 2019, the better.
Sign up today to use ASIPP’s NIPM-QCDR for MIPS.
This powerful tool makes MIPS reporting easy through the use of our new patient-reported outcomes measures for 2019, which ease the burden on providers and reduces costly EMR integration.

Get started today at ASIPP.ArborMetrix.net

Zantac Generic Pulled From Markets Worldwide
Novartis unit says it's stopping distribution while contamination is investigated

One manufacturer of generic ranitidine (Zantac), Novartis's Sandoz unit, has reportedly decided to halt distribution of the antacid drug until a contamination issue is resolved.

Last week, the FDA said some lots of ranitidine, a histamine H2 inhibitor, were found to contain small amounts of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), considered to be a human carcinogen. NDMA is a member of the nitrosamine family of chemicals also found to have contaminated some angiotensin receptor blocker drugs, sparking an uproar that still hasn't died down.
 
A Little Dab of Hand Sanitizer Doesn't Do for Flu Prevention
Study finds mucus on hands still active even after recommended hand hygiene procedures
 
Mucus from patients with influenza A remained infectious even after rubbing with alcohol-based hand sanitizers, a small study in Japan found.

Results were much better for hand washing with an antiseptic soap, which rapidly inactivated influenza A virus in mucus, reported Ryohei Hirose, PhD, MD, of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Kyoto, Japan, and colleagues in mSphere , a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Hirose explained in a statement that the physical properties of mucus protect the virus from inactivation with hand rubs. "Until the mucus has completely dried, infectious [influenza A virus] can remain on the hands and fingers, even after appropriate antiseptic hand rubbing," he added.
 

Second Appalachian Region Prescription Opioid Strikeforce Takedown Results in Charges Against 13 Individuals, Including 11 Physicians
Eleven Defendants Convicted by Guilty Plea as a Result of the First ARPO Takedown in April
The Justice Department announced today the second coordinated law enforcement action of the Appalachian Region Prescription Opioid (ARPO) strike force, resulting in charges against 13 individuals across five Appalachian federal districts for alleged offenses relating to the over prescription of controlled substances through “pill mill” clinics. Of those charged, 12 were charged for their role in unlawfully distributing opioids and other controlled substances and 11 were physicians. The alleged conduct resulted in the distribution of more than 17 million pills.  

This action follows the first such takedown in April of this year, which involved charges against 60 defendants, including 53 medical professionals, in 11 federal districts, alleging the illegal distribution of more than 23 million pills. The charges brought in April have already resulted in 11 guilty pleas in seven federal districts, including guilty pleas by nine medical professionals, including seven physicians.

The charges announced today aggressively prosecute medical professionals whose alleged prescribing behaviors have contributed to the opioid epidemic, particularly medical professionals who are involved in the unlawful distribution of opioids and other prescription narcotics, a particular focus for the Department. According to the CDC, approximately 115 Americans die every day of an opioid-related overdose.  

DOJ
State Society News 
October 25-27, 2019
CalSIPP

California Society of Interventional Pain Physicians 10 th annual meeting
The Resort at Squaw Creek, Lake Tahoe.
 



Send in your state society meeting news to Holly Long, hlong@asipp.org
ASIPP | Pain Physician Journal | Phone | Fax | Email