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ASIPP Room Block Closed, But Rooms Still Available
ASIPP is proud to announce that
Mayor Rudolph "Rudy" Giuliani will be addressing the attendees of the 2017 ASIPP Annual Meeting to be held April 20- 22, 2017 in Las Vegas. Mayor Giuliani will be one of our keynote speakers on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at Caesar's Palace in Vegas.
Other prestigious guest speakers lined up for this year's meeting include:
- Chairman Greg Walden: Changes in Health Care Policies, Chairman of House Energy and Commerce Committee
- Congressman Ed Whitfield: ASIPP is Moving Forward, Long-time friend of ASIPP and recently retired Congressman for Kentucky
- Abraham Verghese, MD, MACP - Keynote Speaker: Delivering Humanistic Care in the Era of High Tech and Lean Resources Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA Abraham Verghese is a physician-author, Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford University Medical School and Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine.
- Robert Wachter, MD: The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA Dr. Robert Wachter is Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He was named one of the 50 most influential physicians in the U.S. for each of the past 7 years.
- Robert Laszewski: US Health Care: Present Status and Future Directions for Independent Physician President, Health Policy and Strategy Associates, LLC. Robert Laszewski is a frequent speaker at ASIPP events. He is the president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, Inc. (HPSA), a policy and marketplace consulting firm dealing with health policy and market change.
- Richard North, MD: Evolving Concepts of Neuromoducation: Past, Present and Future President, the Neuromodulation Foundation, Inc. Dr. Richard North has directed the Neurosurgery Spine Service for 16 years at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has received The American Academy of Pain Medicine's Founder's Award, and the North American Neuromodulation Society's Lifetime Achievement Award in the field of implanted electrical stimulation devices.
- Philippe Hernigou, MD - Keynote Speaker: Innovations in Stem Cell Therapy for Musculoskeletal Injuries Chief of Surgery & Professor of Hospital Henri Mondor, University, Paris. Dr. Hernigou served as a Member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of Stemedica Cell Technologies, Inc. He has used autologous bone marrow concentrate (BMC) to treat orthopedic pathologies since 1990.
- Laxmaiah Manchikanti: Evolution or Innovation: Current Perspectives and Future Strategies, Chairman of the Board and CEO, ASIPP
In addition, ASIPP will be offering multiple afternoon breakout sessions includes sections on:
- Compliance Billing and Coding
- Responsible Controlled Substance Prescribing
- Endoscopic Decompression
- Regenerative Medicine
- Practce Management
- Ambulatory Surgery Center Payment Systems
- Emerging Concepts in IPM
- Abstract Session
- Current and Future Concepts in IPM
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Trump and the GOP should face it: There's only one option left to fix health care
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From ASIPP Keynote Speaker
Robert Laszewski
Now that the American Health Care Act has been yanked, after GOP leadership failed to rustle up enough votes to get it passed, it is clear that an Obamacare fix cannot be negotiated with hard-line Republican conservatives.
But there is another option for getting a bill passed. President Trump and the Congressional Republican leadership would have a much easier time working with the Democrats—with whom they have more in common.
After almost two months of collaborative effort by the House Republican leadership and the Trump administration, it is now crystal clear that the ideological differences between hard-right conservatives and most Republicans, are so wide, a deal cannot be done that accommodates them.
CNBC
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Save The Date!
Board Certification Testing Available in June in Orlando, FL
Make plans now to take one of the following exams during the June 16 – 18th course in Orlando, FL.
We will be offering the following exams (more details will be available next week)
and
Written and Oral Exams will be held on Saturday, June 17. Hand-on lab exam will be Sunday 18th
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Update on the ASIPP NIPM QCDR and the CMS Process
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Given the high demand for specialty QCDRs, CMS is delayed relative to the originally indicated application review schedule, and it will respond to QCDR applications in mid-April. QCDR applications for all specialties are currently pending. While this is disappointing, such timing changes are not atypical for CMS and our QCDR will successfully work around such delays:
- Despite the setback from CMS, our QCDR will allow you to submit data retroactively so that you can report for all of 2017.
- If you choose to not submit data retroactively , you can still meet MIPS requirements as you are only required by CMS to submit for 50% of patients for the year.
- There are also options this year only to report for just three months of the year (and still receive incentives and avoid penalties); or to report any data at all and still avoid the penalty. We support both of these approaches as well.
We will keep you updated on any further announcements from CMS as well as the overall process of launching the QCDR.
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Finally, an Online Journal for Interventional Pain Management Case Reports, as well as Brief Reports and Reviews
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Inaugural Issue Online Now!
Inside this inuaugural issue of Interventional Pain Management Reports (IPM Reports) , we are featuring an impressive amount of case reports on Epidural Hematoma. These and much more informative manuscripts are found in the March 2017 issue of IPM Reports.
This issue includes:
- Five Epidural Hematoma-Related Articles
- Subcutaneous Botulinum Toxin Injections for Post-Craniotomy Scars
- Perioperative Ketamine Infusion for Reversing Opioid-Induced Hyperalgesia
- Platelet Rich Plasma in the Treatment Algorithm of Knee Osteoarthritis
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March/April Issue of Pain Physician available
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This month in Pain Physician journal, we are featuring two articles on Health Care in the United States - it's evolution and how the repeal and replace should be handled. These and much more informative manuscripts are found in the March/April issue of Pain Physician. In this issue, you can read about:
Click below to view full article pdfs available only online at: www.painphysicianjournal.com
Evolution of US Health Care Reform
Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, Standiford Helm II, MD, Ramsin M. Benyamin, MD, and Joshua A. Hirsch, MD Pain Physician 2017; 20:107-110
A Critical Analysis of Obamacare: Affordable Care or Insurance for Many and Coverage for Few? Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, Standiford Helm II, MD, Ramsin M. Benyamin, MD, and Joshua A. Hirsch, MD Pain Physician 2017; 20:111-138
CLICK HERE TO ACDESS ENTIRE MARCH/APRIL ISSUE
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After GOP Health Bill’s Demise, More States Weigh Expanding Medicaid
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A growing number of states are considering expanding their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, after last week’s abrupt collapse of the GOP health bill and a development that could make it harder for Republicans to undo the law in the future.
Notably, the GOP-led Kansas legislature voted Tuesday to expand Medicaid over the protests of the state’s Republican governor. In addition, states including Virginia, Maine and North Carolina are taking steps toward growing their Medicaid programs now that the ACA seems unlikely to go away and federal money for such an expansion appears more secure.
At the same time, House Republican leaders, who were forced to withdraw a repeal-and-replace bill on Friday due to insufficient support from their own members, suggested Tuesday they were renewing their efforts. But there was little indication GOP divisions over the bill were healing, and Senate and White House officials said they saw no immediate path forward.
Wall Street Journal
Access to this article may be limited.
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Senator to investigate opioid makers’ role in drug crisis Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri demanded information Tuesday from five top opioid manufacturers, saying she would investigate their alleged role in the drug epidemic responsible for more than 200,000 overdose deaths since 2000.
“This epidemic is the direct result of a calculated sales and marketing strategy major opioid manufacturers have allegedly pursued over the past 20 years to expand their market share and increase dependency on powerful — and often deadly — painkillers,” McCaskill, who is the ranking Democrat of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote to company executives. “To achieve this goal, manufacturers have reportedly sought, among other techniques, to downplay the risk of addiction to their products and encourage physicians to prescribe opioids for all cases of pain and in high doses.”
McCaskill sent letters to Purdue Pharma, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Insys Therapeutics, Mylan, and Depomed, which she said make the top-five-selling prescription painkillers. She is seeking sales and marketing materials, any studies the companies might have conducted about the addictive properties of their drugs, information on compliance with legal settlements and figures on donations to advocacy groups.
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HIPAA Fines to be Accompanied by Corrective Action Plans
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the US Department of Health and Human Services has progressively increased fines for health care providers who experience HIPAA breaches (like Advocate Health Care's 2016 record-setting $5.5 million). These 7-figure fines have garnered a lot of attention, but there is another deterrent that can be just as painful, if not more so: the corrective action plan (CAP).
“Most people are struck by the monetary fine, but if you are subject to a CAP, you quickly realize that it can be a similarly severe penalty,” said Dianne Bourque, of the Boston law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, PC.
Where fines are levied as punishment for breaches, a CAP is intended to correct underlying compliance problems and prevent breaches from recurring. Regulated entities must comply under OCR's strict supervision. According to Bourque, a CAP leaves providers with little control over the timeline or the process for implementing compliance fixes.
Clinical Pain Advisor
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Cocaine Use Up in the United States
While much of the recent attention on drug abuse in the United States has focused on the heroin and opioid epidemic, cocaine has also been making a comeback. It appears to be a case of supply driving demand.
After years of falling output, the size of Colombia’s illegal coca crop has exploded since 2013, and the boom is starting to appear on U.S. streets.
Washington Post
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Pain Doctor Accused of Overprescribing Opioids Pleads Guilty
BOSTON (AP) — At Dr. Fathalla Mashali's pain management clinics, the waiting rooms were often so packed with patients that people sat on the floor, leaned against walls and spilled into the hallways.
That's because, federal prosecutors say, Mashali was prescribing oxycodone and other powerful opioid painkillers at alarming rates to people making risky use of drugs. At one point, they say, Mashali wrote out more oxycodone prescriptions in one month — over 1,100 — than some of the largest hospitals in Massachusetts.
Mashali pleaded guilty Wednesday to 44 counts of health care fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering, offering a brief apology during his change-of-plea hearing in U.S. District Court.
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New Jersey pain clinic [orthopedic clinic] reopens after infecting 37 patients
The Osteo Relief Institute Jersey Shore in Wall Township, N.J., reopened on Tuesday after
closing March 8 due to infections detected among the clinic's patients, according to a report from the
Asbury Park Press.
On March 17,
News12 New Jersey reported more than 30 patients treated for osteoarthritis with knee injections at the clinic had developed septic arthritis, which is a painful joint infection that causes inflammation. On Tuesday, New Jersey health officials increased the number of infections linked to treatment at the clinic from 31 to 37, according to the
Asbury Park Press. More than 20 patients required surgery to clear the infection.
Two Physicians Found Guilty For Distributing Oxycodone
Dr. Anthony Conrardy, age 61, and Dr. William McCutchen, III, age 46, were found guilty yesterday of unlawfully distributing Schedule II narcotics by a federal jury in Detroit, MI, acting United States Attorney Daniel L. Lemisch announced today. Dr. Anthony Conrardy was convicted of five counts of unlawfully distributing Oxycodone and Dilaudid, and Dr. William McCutchen, III was convicted of four counts of unlawfully distributing Oxycodone.
Lemisch was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. Plancon, of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Detroit Division, Lamont Pugh, Special Agent in Charge of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Manny Muriel, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation.
Owner of New England Compounding Center Convicted of Racketeering Leading to Nationwide Fungal Meningitis Outbreak
Outbreak was the largest public health crisis ever caused by a pharmaceutical product
Barry Cadden, the owner and head pharmacist of New England Compounding Center (NECC), was convicted today by a federal jury of racketeering and mail fraud in connection with the 2012 nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak, the Justice Department announced.
After a nine-week trial, the jury convicted Cadden, 50, of Wrentham, Massachusetts, of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud and introduction of misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead. U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns scheduled sentencing for June 21, 2017.
In 2012, 753 patients in 20 states were diagnosed with a fungal infection after receiving injections of preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate (MPA) manufactured by NECC. Of those 753 patients, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 64 patients in nine states died. The outbreak was the largest public health crisis ever caused by a pharmaceutical product.
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OHSIPP Meeting
August 25-27, 2017
The Ohio Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (OHSIPP) has set the dates for its 2017 meeting.
Dates are Friday Aug 25 thru Sunday Aug 27, 2017.
The meeting will be held in Cincinnati at the Westin Hotel, 21 E 5th St , at Fountain Square .
Contact Michelle Byers for more information MichelleHByers@gmail.com
FSIPP Meeting
August 27 - 30, 2017
The Florida Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (FSIPP) has set the dates for its 2017 meeting
Dates are April 27-30, 2107
The meeting will be held in Orlando, FL at the Orlando World Center Marriott
Click Here for more information and to make reservation
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