American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians | February 1, 2017
American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians | April 26, 2017
ASIPP Annual Meeting a Tremendous Success  

A record crowd, a fantastic venue and amazing keynote speakers made the 19th annual meeting held last week in Las Vegas the best ever for ASIPP.   From early registration on Wednesday to the final session on IPM Survival Strategies on Saturday, the meeting lauded high praise from nearly every member who attended. Final attendance reached nearly 1,100 – our best crowd to date.  

Click HERE  to view photos of meeting.

Click HERE to view slide show.

Francis Riegler, MD received the gavel as  the new president of ASIPP from Dr. Aaron Calodney.  Kicking off keynote speeches, Dr. Laxmaiah Manchikanti announced the  Raj-Racz Distinguished Lecture Series. Keynote speakers were Dr. Abraham Verghese of Stanford University School of Medicine and Dr. Richard North who is president of Neuromodulation Foundation.

Other keynote speakers on Thursday were Dr. Phillippe Hernigou who is chief of orthopedic surgery at Henri Mondor Hospital in Paris, France; and Dr. Joshua Hirsch of  Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston.  

Breakout sessions on Thursday included; Regenerative Medicine, Resident/fellow Session, Emerging Concepts in IPM, Abstract Session and Survival of Ambulatory Surgery Centers for IPM Session.   Thursday evening was capped off with a meet and greet with our Vendors in the Exhibitor Hall.  

On Friday, Dr. Robert Laszewski, president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates and Dr. Robert Wachter of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine were the featured speakers for the Manchikanti Distinguished Lecture. Other keynote speakers on Friday included Dr. Manchikanti and Dr. Andrea Trescot.

Afternoon breakout sessions included: Compliance Billing, and Coding, Responsible Controlled Substance Prescribing, Current and Future Concepts in IPM, and Endoscopic Decompression. The day ended with a big win for ASIPP Members with an extremely successful fundraiser for Congressman Greg Walden (R-OR), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  

Saturday featured the Honorable Rudolph “Rudy” Giuliani as keynote speaker. He was followed by Congressman Ed Whitfield and then Dr. Nathan Miller who gave members an updated on the ASIPP QCDR Registry for MIPS. The afternoon sessions featured Dr. Riegler, Dr. Vikram Patel, Tim Coan, Dr. Nilesh Patel, Dr. Sudhir Diwan, Dr. Vicki Myckowaik and Dr. Michael Seahar.  

Congratulations to our new board:
President: Francis Riegler, MD  
Immediate Past President: Aaron Calodney, MD  
President-Elect:  Hans Hansen, MD  
First Executive Vice-President of Regional Affairs [Emissary to the State Societies] (new):  Sudhir Diwan, MD  
First Executive Vice-President:  Frank Falco, MD  
Second Executive Vice-President:  Harold Cordner, MD  
Secretary:  Bradley Wargo, DO  
Treasurer:  Standiford Helm, MD  
Vice-President of Strategic Planning: Sanjay Bakshi, MD  
Vice-President of Strategic Alliances (new):  Sukdeb Datta, MD  
Directors Emeritus:  Ramsin Benyamin, MD, Peter Staats, MD  
Academic Directors:  Salahadin Abdi, MD, Christopher Gharibo, MD, Jay Grider, MD, Joshua Hirsch, MD  
Young Physician Directors:  Steve Aydin, DO, Kaylea Boutwell, MD, George Chang Chien, DO , Devi Nampiaparimpil, MD, Amol Soin, MD  
Directors at Large:  Sheri Albers, DO, Scott Glaser, MD , Dharam Mann, MD, Annu Navani, MD, Sanford Silverman, MD , Deborah Tracy, MD  
Resident / Fellow:  Michael Lubrano, MD    

ABIPP Board of Directors:  
Executive Director: Mark V. Boswell, MD, PhD  
Treasurer/Secretary: Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD  
ABIPP Board: Ramsin Benyamin, MD Sudhir Diwan, MD Bradley W. Wargo, DO Francis Riegler, MD Sheri Albers, DO Standiford Helm II, MD Hans C. Hansen, MD Frank J.E. Falco, MD Allan T. Parr, MD Alan David Kaye, MD, PhD Sukdeb Datta, MD      

It’s not too early to make plans to attend the 20th annual meeting March 15 to 17th, 2018 in Orlando, FL
  BROCHURE                      HOTEL                                    REGISTER
BROCHURE                                       HOTEL
     BROCHURE                                    HOTEL          
     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


Under Fire, National Academies Toughen Conflict-of-Interest Policies  

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are toughening their financial conflict-of-interest policies after publishing reports that some critics have said are tainted by undisclosed corporate influences.

The 154-year-old scientific academy, chartered by Congress during the Lincoln administration, has long enjoyed a reputation as a top-quality producer of in-depth, impartial academic analyses on a range of national policy questions. But that reputation has been challenged by complaints about two reports — one on medical pain relief and another on genetically modified organisms — whose authors’ ties to industry were not made clear.    


A GOP Health-Care Reprieve?

A compromise gives the House a chance to honor its ObamaCare promise.   Republicans have put themselves in a deep hole on ObamaCare, both politically and on the health-market merits, but maybe they’ll grab the rescue line now dangling in front of them. A potential compromise among the House’s contentious GOP factions could begin the climb out.

The chance to revive the failed repeal-and-replace bill developed this week when the House Freedom Caucus’s Mark Meadows and the centrist Tuesday Group’s Tom MacArthur struck a tentative deal. Their compromise would allow states to seek waivers to opt out of most of ObamaCare’s insurance mandates. House Republicans spent months negotiating the American Health Care Act in an inclusive internal process, but the 30-or-so members of the Freedom Caucus revolted over the final result. Their demands drove the bill to the right, provoking moderate defections without delivering more conservative votes. Thus the legislation imploded in March.    


Access to this article may be limited.


Grants to Combat Opioid Crisis Offered by Trump Administration 

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, M.D. today announced that HHS will soon provide $485 million in grants to help states and territories combat opioid addiction. The funding, which is the first of two rounds provided for in the 21st Century Cures Act, will be provided through the State Targeted Response to the Opioid Crisis Grants administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The funding will be issued to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, four U.S. territories, and the free associated states of Palau and Micronesia. Funding will support a comprehensive array of prevention, treatment, and recovery services depending on the needs of recipients. States and territories were awarded funds based on rates of overdose deaths and unmet need for opioid addiction treatment. 

HHS

HIPAA Fines May Be Accompanied by Corrective Action Plans for Health Care Providers  

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).    

Locky ransomware is back, but with a new twist

Locky re-emerged on Friday with a new delivery method, presenting more potential cybersecurity troubles for healthcare orgs. 

Locky ransomware reemerged Friday with multiple sets of phishing e-mail messages, cybersecurity vendor PhishMe’s research team has discovered. Similar to narratives used throughout 2016, these messages used simple, easily recognizable, but very effective phishing lures to convince recipients to open an attached file, PhishMe said.

In contrast to the Locky delivery methods used throughout most of 2016, cybercriminals in this new wave are leveraging a technique that has become popular in the distribution of the Dridex botnet malware, PhishMe said, specifically PDF links. 

Healthcare IT news 


FDA Issues Contraindications, Warnings on Codeine, Tramadol Use  

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is restricting the use of codeine and tramadol medicines in children.1 This new action further limits the use of these medications beyond the 2013 restriction of codeine use in children <18 years to treat pain after surgery to remove the tonsils and/or adenoids.2 In addition, the Agency is recommending against the use of codeine and tramadol medicines in breastfeeding mothers due to possible harm to their infants. 

The following changes will be made to the drug labeling for these medications as a result of this FDA action: 
  • A Contraindication will be added alerting prescribers that codeine should not be used to treat pain or cough and tramadol should not be used to treat pain in children <12 years of age
  • A new Contraindication will be added to tramadol labeling warning against its use in children <18 years to treat pain after surgery to remove the tonsils and/or adenoids
  • A new Warning will be added to codeine and tramadol products recommending against use in adolescents 12–18 years old who are obese or have conditions such as obstructive sleep apnea or severe lung disease
  • A strengthened Warning will be added indicating that breastfeeding is not recommended when taking codeine or tramadol due to the risk of serious adverse reactions in breastfed infants 


FDA


Policy Experts Applaud New Resident Work Hour Policy for Being Based on Evidence, Not Opinion  

Health-policy experts are applauding the new revisions to residents' duty hours just issued by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). 

The revisions limit resident workweeks to 80 hours, but also extend shifts from 16 to 24 hours — revisions that the ACGME says are based on evidence, not opinion.

“What is meaningful about the recent ACGME rules is that they are based on stronger evidence and on a more disciplined approach to developing the kind of evidence that ought to inform policy of such reach,” say lead author David Asch, MD, MBA, professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, both in Philadelphia, and two coauthors in a recent review in  The New England Journal of Medicine.    

Changes to Government Approach to Doctor Payment Under MACRA  

Implementation of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) has made fundamental changes to the government's approach to physician payment, according to a March 27 policy brief published in  Health Affairs.1 The policy brief addresses the core provisions of MACRA and issues relating to the change in the way Medicare will pay clinicians.

The new approach pays providers based on the quality, value, and results of care delivered, and not for individual services. The final rules create 2 tracks: the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and the Alternative Payment Model (APM); 90 to 95% of  Medicare Part B billings will be subject to the new payment system. As part of MIPS, an estimated $3 billion will be provided in positive payment adjustments from 2019 to 2025. Several levels of alternative payment organizations have been created, which require practices to take on some level of financial risk for patient outcomes. Physician participation in APMs is being encouraged with advanced alternative payment entity bonuses. However, all special-interest groups have sought changes and raised questions; limited evidence is available to support payment based on patient outcomes.    

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



State Society News  

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


ASIPP | Pain Physician Journal | Phone | Fax | Email