Wednesday | March 24, 2021
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A side-by-side look at the three vaccines authorized in the U.S.
While direct comparisons can't be made because head-to-head trials don't exist, people are questioning how the three COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the U.S. stack up.
Click here to view the key characteristics of each of those vaccines. This list will be updated as additional vaccines become available.
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If the House can stop the new RESCUE plan cuts, this is potentially good news. Postponing the old 2% cuts, which seems to increase payments later, this bill is not worth it. Funding cuts must be eliminated permanently. |
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The House passed a bill on Friday to extend the moratorium on 2% Medicare payment cuts caused by a federal budget sequestration and avert $36 billion in payment cuts triggered by the American Rescue Plan.
Legislators voted 246 to 175 to pass H.R.1868, which postpones Medicare sequester payment cuts until the end of the year and exempts the budgetary effects of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill from the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010.
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Our FIRST IN-PERSON
Meeting since COVID Shutdowns
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The 23rd annual meeting will be educational (providing much-needed CME credits), exciting, and will offer the long-awaited ability to leave our homes and attend meetings in a safe and responsible manner.
ASIPP is working to make the program highly relevant for our changing healthcare system and environment. We will also bring you cutting-edge lectures on exciting new technology, world-renowned speakers, and much, much more.
Topics will include COVID-19, economics, burnout, social media, metabolic health, regulatory issues, scientific advances in IPM, and much more!
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No thrombosis events seen, company says; 100% efficacy against severe disease
Note: After AstraZeneca issued its press release, the trial's independent monitoring board raised questions about its accuracy. Further developments will be reported on MedPage Today.
No diminution ineffectiveness was seen among participants 65 and older, with an efficacy value of 80%. Efficacy against severe disease and hospitalization was 100%.
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Two more spine surgeons received prison sentences March 18 for their roles in a $40 million kickback scheme at the now-defunct physician-owned Forest Park Medical Center in Dallas, according to The Dallas Morning News reports.
Douglas Won, MD, was sentenced to five years in prison, and Michael Rimlawi, DO, received a seven and a half year prison term. The two surgeons were also ordered to pay almost $30 million in restitution, according to the report.
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Senators, witnesses debate which solutions would work best
Senators on both sides of the aisle may agree that prescription drug prices are too high, but their solutions to the problem couldn't be more different.
"All over this country, the American people are asking a simple question: How many people need to die before Congress is prepared to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry?" Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security, said during a subcommittee hearing Tuesday on the high price of prescription drugs.
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Pain Medicine Case Reports (PMCR) and Editor-in-Chief Alaa Abd-Elsayed, MD, PhD would like to invite you to submit case reports and case series to the PMCR journal. Your article will be published free of charge.
Open access journals are freely available online for immediate worldwide open access to the full text of published articles. There is no subscription fee for open access journals. Open access journals are no different from traditional subscription-based journals: they undergo the same peer-review and quality control as any other scholarly journal.
Interested in becoming a member of the PMCR Editorial Board?
Editorial board members are asked to review 2-6 manuscripts per year. Please submit your most up-to-date CV to sgold@asipp.org for consideration.
For more information or to submit your articles, click here.
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Rana Al-Jumah, MD, Jamal Hasoon, MD, Ivan Urits, MD,
Amnon A Berger, MD, PhD, Omar Viswanath, MD,
Alaa Abd-Elsayed, MD, Musa Aner, MD
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a rapidly growing interventional treatment modality in chronic pain. Pain physicians are faced with the decision on how to manage patients on anticoagulation therapy given the risk of epidural hematomas.
Case Report: We describe a patient with a history of atrial fibrillation and prior pulmonary embolism on chronic anticoagulation. The patient was planned to undergo an SCS trial but was unable to discontinue all anticoagulation during the length of the trial. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach, the patient discontinued warfarin 5 days prior to the procedure and began a therapeutic dose of low molecular weight heparin (LMWH). The final dose of LMWH was given 24 hours before the trial procedure. The patient then started prophylactic dosing of LMWH 24 hours after the trial procedure and continued that regimen for the course of the SCS trial. The last dose of prophylactic LMWH was given 24 hours before removal of the trial leads and the patient restarted 3 days of therapeutic LMWH along with resuming his normal anticoagulation regimen after lead removal. The patient was able to undergo a successful SCS trial and will be pursuing an SCS implant with further anticoagulation management.
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Abstract
Background: Epidural injections have been extensively used since their description in 1901, and steroids since their first utilization in 1952. Multiple randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews have reached discordant conclusions regarding the effectiveness of sodium chloride solution and steroids in managing spinal pain. True placebo-controlled trials with the injection of an inactive substance to unrelated structures have been nonexistent. Consequently, the discussions continue to escalate, seemingly without proper discourse. In this review, we sought to assess the true placebo nature of saline and the effectiveness of steroids.
Objectives: This assessment of sodium chloride solution is undertaken to assess if it is a true placebo when injected into the epidural space, is effective alone, and whether steroids are effective when injected with sodium chloride solution rather than local anesthetic in managing spinal pain.
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Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, Vidyasagar Pampati, MSc, Amol Soin, MD, Mahendra R. Sanapati, MD, Alan D. Kaye, MD, PhD, and Joshua A. Hirsch, MD
Abstract
Background: Despite epidurals being one of the most common interventional pain procedures for managing chronic spinal pain in the United States, expenditure analysis lacks assessment in correlation with utilization patterns.
Objectives: This investigation was undertaken to assess expenditures for epidural procedures in the fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare population from 2009 to 2018.
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If you have a question, please email Savannah Gold at sgold@asipp.org or call 270.554.9412, ext 4219.
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- Selected manuscripts will be presented in an Electronic Poster Presentation
- Top 25 will be published in the Pain Physician journal.
- Top 10 will be selected for the Abstract Presentation at the Annual Meeting
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The California Society of Interventional Pain Physicians is pleased to invite you to...
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Integrating Regenerative Medicine Into
Your Interventional Pain Practice
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Earn up to 6 CEUs while Exploring the Future of
Interventional Pain Management Using Regenerative
Medicine to Enhance Patient Outcomes.
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One more hour of sleep makes a difference in infection odds
Insomnia, sleep disruption, and job burnout were linked to higher odds of COVID-19 among physicians and other healthcare workers frequently exposed to SARS-CoV-2, a survey of nearly 2,900 clinicians showed.
Clinicians in high-risk jobs who had three sleep problems -- difficulty sleeping at night, poor sleep continuity, and frequent sleeping pill use -- had almost twice as much risk for COVID-19 than those with no sleep problems (OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.17-3.01, P trend=0.22), reported Sara Seidelmann, MD, PhD, of Stamford Hospital in Connecticut, and co-authors.
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A thorough review of the data and history makes this clear
Pre-clinical data
The current neurobiologic framework for understanding addiction rests upon the nearly ubiquitous manifestation of dopamine surges within the mesolimbic system of the brain, including nucleus accumbens and the ventral tegmental area. In short, if the organism really enjoys or likes a substance or activity, the brain will emphatically punctuate the experience and memory with an exclamation point comprising phasic (vs tonic) dopaminergic activity in this so-called "hedonic highway" circuitry. It's the beginning of a craving, but so much more than that.
What's unique about oxycodone relative to other opioids is the speed at which it's presented to the brain. There's a long-venerated addictionology axiom that basically says the more rapid (or dynamic) the pleasure, the more addictive. And in that regard, oxycodone reigns supreme (rivaling heroin), likely having to do with the fact that oxycodone's transport across the blood-brain barrier is considerably faster and more efficient than that of other opioids – up to seven-fold greater in some species.
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Since this malpractice insurance program officially launched in November 2018, ASIPP has signed up hundreds of providers with an average savings of 30%. This is professional liability insurance tailored to our specialty and will stand up for us and defend our practices.
Norcal Mutual is 'A' Rated by AM best and is license in all 50 states. To read a few important points to keep in mind about the program, including discounts, administrative defense, cyber coverage, aggressive claims handling, and complimentary award-winning risk management CME activities, click here.
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ASIPP® has formed a partnership with Henry Schein and PedsPal,
a national GPO that has a successful history of negotiating better prices on medical supplies and creating value added services for the independent physician. Working with MedAssets, PedsPal provides excellent pricing on products like contrast media that alleviate some of the financial pressures you experience today.
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All sessions from the September 2020 meeting are available through June 2021 for a reduced fee. On-demand registration also provides access to all of the great resources available in the exhibit hall.
*Recorded sessions are not eligible for CME credits.
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ASIPP® is now offering our members the benefit of a unique revenue cycle management/ billing service. We have received a tremendous amount of interest in the ASIPP billing and coding program.
Click here to learn more about the negotiated rate for practices and more!
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and LinkedIn for the most up-to-date news
related to you, your practice, and your patients!
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