Don't let the discounts pass you by; make your plans today to attend the March 6-8, 2008 Interventional Techniques Review Course and Cadaver Workshop.

The review course includes one day of didactics covering various interventional techniques and one and a half days of hands-on cadaver workshop designed to meet the needs of interventional pain physicians seeking to refresh or learn new skills and also for those who desire ABIPP certification.

During this 3-day event, you can improve existing skills, learn new skills, prepare for the interventional techniques certification, or prepare for the board examination. Whether you have been practicing interventional pain management for many years or are new to the field with basic skills, we are confident you will find this review course and cadaver workshop to be beneficial as it is essential to keep learning. We trust you will be eager to join us for this opportunity to professional enhancement.

The seminar will take place at the Westin Memphis Beale Street and the Medical Education and Research Institute (MERI) in Memphis, TN. To assure a reduced rate on registration and hotel, register on or before Feb. 11.

Meetings

Brochure

Former Sen. Tom Daschle has withdrawn his nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a statement Tuesday from the White House.

Daschle had been fighting to save his nomination after controversy over his tax records and questions over his work in a field that some consider lobbying.

The Online Abstract Submission (see step-by- step procedures below) for the 11th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) is now open. The meeting will be held June 27- June 30, 2009 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA.

To be considered for a presentation at the meeting, abstracts must be submitted and completed by the submission deadline of April 20, 2009.

As leaders in Congress and the Obama administration look to expand health-insurance coverage while controlling costs, they are considering changing the way doctors are paid for treating Medicare patients. Critics of the current system say it creates a financial incentive for unnecessary treatments. Policy makers and some private insurers may opt to make a single, blanket payment for such things as providing a few months of cancer treatment, which currently can involve many separate billable procedures (Goldstein, The Wall Street Journal, January 30, 2009).

A consumer group seeking Medicare billing records to help grade doctors on quality said it's not giving up despite a reversal from a federal appeals court. The case is being closely watched as an important battle in the effort to reshape the nation's healthcare system. Consumer advocates, employers, and insurers argue that access to Medicare claims filed by doctors' offices could help independent groups monitor quality and ferret out waste. But doctors are worried that such disclosures would violate their privacy, and that ratings could portray some physician's offices inaccurately (Yahoo News, Feb. 2, 2009).

Physicians will have an additional two years to learn the next generation of diagnostic codes, thanks to a final Medicare regulation released Jan. 15, one of several key rules that the Bush administration sent out the door in its last days (Silva, amednews.com, Feb. 2, 2009).

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had proposed in August 2008 that physicians, hospitals and payers adopt an updated version of the International Classification of Diseases code sets, ICD-10, by Oct. 1, 2011. Physicians use ICD-9 codes to list patient diagnoses on claims, while hospitals use them for diagnoses and procedures.

The House has passed its version of the $819 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill (Manos, Healthcare Finance News, Jan. 29, 2009).

Aspects of the bill, passed Wednesday night, that support healthcare include $20 billion to advance healthcare IT, $4.1 billion to increase preventative care and evaluate the most effective treatments, $87 billion to temporarily increase federal Medicaid matching rates and $39 billion to help the newly unemployed maintain healthcare coverage through COBRA.

"When they caught me I had 300 lorcets on me and that was an average of what I would keep on me: 300 lorcets, 400 somas and 100 or so xanax." -- Until he was busted by the Calcasieu Combined Anti-Drug Team last July, this inmate who we'll call "Rob" -- operated on the streets of Calcasieu parish for five years as a prescription drug dealer. Filling his endless supply through Texas pain management clinics -- he says it was too easy (Peck, KPLC-TV online, Feb, 2, 2009)

A Virginia Beach doctor who has treated thousands of patients for chronic pain could have his medical license revoked after at least five patients died under his care (Sizemore, The Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 25, 2009)

Dr. Stephen Plotnick faces a hearing this week before the Virginia Board of Medicine, which suspended his license in August, citing "a substantial danger to the public health or safety."

If your state society has news to share, send it to mmartin@asipp.org

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Visit the ASIPP Web site to find available positions for IPM physicians.