·  Annual Meeting Early Registration Discount Ends June 5

·  CCI Second Quarter Updates

·  Board Review Course to be held in New Orleans

·  Comprehensive Review Course Registration Now Open

·  Antitrust Laws a Hurdle to Health Care Overhaul

·  Survey shows poor economy makes physicians less inclined to leave a practice

·  Proposal Would Require Health Plans, Doctors to Cut Appointment Wait Times

·  Doctor pushes back against insurer scrutiny

·  New Jersey Society to hold Biannual Meeting

·  Physicians Wanted

Annual Meeting Early Registration Discount Ends June 5

The ASIPP Annual Meeting is the premier Educational Forum for Evidence-based Medicine for Interventional Pain Management! This is a first-time opportunity to learn about the importance of evidence-based medicine in IPM as it applies to you, your patients, and your practice. In addition, this year we offer an extensive program that covers the essential elements of practice management including extensive presentation on Billing and Coding.

Listen to our distinguished faculty and learn from these experts the cutting-edge research and the importance of guidelines, IPM techniques as they apply to evidence-based medicine. Discover many important "pearls" for Billing and Coding. Hear how you can run your ASC or office more efficiently through best practices. Interventional Pain Management is continually growing and evolving, and there is no better time to stay abreast of the field and learn about emerging issues. On Saturday we once again offer many thought provoking abstract presentations.

We welcome and encourage all ASIPP members and guests to attend the 11th Annual Meeting. This program offers something for everyone; physicians, administrators, nurses, educators, etc. We also invite you to attend the ASIPP "Night at the Oscars" Business Dinner Meeting on Saturday evening. The night will hold dinner, awards, entertainment, and dancing.

On Tuesday we will bring Capitol Hill to you. Presentations will be made by many distinguished congressional and governmental speakers who will address how the changing economy and administration will affect healthcare and Interventional Pain Management in particular, MCAC, etc.

You won't want to miss the award winning 2009 ASIPP Annual Meeting! Join us on June 27-30, 2009, in Washington, DC.

Brochure

Online Registration

CCI Second Quarter Updates

The second quarter CCI updates have been released. Many new edits have been added to column 2 (modifiers). 'We are working on getting these changed.

0178T; 0179T; 0180T; 36400; 36405; 36406; 36420; 36425; 36430; 36440; 36600; 36640; 43752; 62310; 62311; 64400; 64402; 64405; 64408; 64410; 64412; 64413; 64418; 64420; 64421; 64425; 64430; 64435; 64445; 64446; 64447; 64448; 64449; 64479; 64483; 64505; 64508; 64510; 64517; 64520; 64530; 64550; 93000; 93005; 93010; 93040; 93041; 93042; 93318; 94002; 94200; 94250; 94680; 94681; 94690; 94770; 95812; 95813; 95816; 95819; 95822; 95829; 95955; 96376.

CCI Updates

Board Review Course to be held in New Orleans

The 2009 ASIPP Board Review Course will be held on August 11 -15 in New Orleans. The ABIPP Part I Examination will take place on August 16 following the review course. Online registration for the review course is now available. You must submit an application to sit for the ABIPP Part I Exam.

This intensive review course is designed to present interventional pain physicians with an in-depth review of multiple areas of interventional pain management. The course will feature many nationally known experts in IPM, controlled substance, billing and coding, healthcare law, and other areas.

The course will be held at the Astor Crowne Royal. A discounted room rate of $109 is available until July 10. Call 504-962-0500 and tell them you are booking under the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.

Register today!

Brochure

Comprehensive Review Course Registration Now Open

Online registration is now open for the 2009 Comprehensive Review Course and Examinations in Coding, Compliance, and Practice Management & Controlled Substance Management.

The course will be held at the Astor Crowne Plaza in New Orleans on Aug. 11 - 16. This intensive review course is a CME activity to prepare physicians seeking competency certification and to provide interventional pain management specialists and other healthcare providers an in-depth review of multiple areas of interventional pain management.

The Controlled Substance Management course will be held on Aug. 11-12 with an optional exam on Aug. 13. The Coding, Compliance, and Practice Management section will begin on Aug. 14-15. The examination for this section will be held on Aug. 16.

For brochure, registration and hotel information go to ASIPP Meetings.

Antitrust Laws a Hurdle to Health Care Overhaul

President Obama's campaign to cut health costs by $2 trillion over the next decade, announced with fanfare two weeks ago, may have hit another snag: the nation's antitrust laws (Pear, The New York Times, May 26, 2009).

Antitrust lawyers say doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and drug makers will be running huge legal risks if they get together and agree on a strategy to hold down prices and reduce the growth of health spending.

The New York Times

Survey shows poor economy makes physicians less inclined to leave a practice

The nation's economic situation means physicians are staying at their current jobs and retirement is moving further into the future. But the need to juggle the demands of family life with a job remains a significant determinant as to whether a doctor stays with a practice, according to a report recently released by Cejka Search, a St. Louis-based medical recruitment company, and the American Medical Group (Elliott, American Medical News, May 25, 2009).

"The stock market has really reduced physicians' ability to retire," said Brian McCartie, Cejka's regional vice president. "And there's difficulty in moving, because they don't want to turn around and take a $200,000 loss on their house."

amednews.com

Proposal Would Require Health Plans, Doctors to Cut Appointment Wait Times

California soon may become the first state in the nation to set a maximum number of hours a health plan enrollee may wait before getting in to see a doctor (Clark, HealthLeaders Media, May 22, 2009).

Under the proposed regulations that are six years in the making, a patient needing an "urgent" appointment for a service not requiring prior authorization must be seen within 48 hours. For urgent appointments requiring prior authorization, they must be seen within 96 hours.

HealthLeaders Media

Doctor pushes back against insurer scrutiny

Monterey physician Bradley Carpentier found himself spending so much time fighting with health insurers to get approvals for the treatments he prescribed for his patients that he decided to wage his own lobbying effort (Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle, May 25, 2009).

Carpentier formed a new political action committee - Stop Practicing Medicine - to target the long-standing practice of insurers hiring doctors to review physician decisions, even though the insurer-hired doctors had never seen or talked to the patient whose care they were scrutinizing.

San Francisco Chronicle

New Jersey Society to hold Biannual Meeting

The New Jersey Society of Interventionl Pain Physicians will hold its biannual meeting on Thursday June 18, 2009 at 6:30 pm at Maggiano's Little Italy, Bridgewater, NJ.

In addition to excellent food and drink, the meeting will offer many knowledgeable speakers on the subject of practice management. NJSIPP members are encouraged to attend. Non-members are also welcome.

If you plan to attend please RSVP using the contact information on the attached form.

NJSIPP Registration Form

Physicians Wanted

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

Physicians Wanted