September 23, 2009
Few Openings Still Available for Documentation for Dummies Course |
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It's not too late to make plans to attend the Documentation for Dummies course in Memphis, TN. This course offers extensive and detailed sessions on coding for interventional pain management and is an opportunity for you and your staff to gain new information to get answers for your troubling coding questions. Register
This course will be held on Oct. 9-11 in Memphis, TN, at the the historic Peabody Hotel and will focus on the more practical aspects of coding and billing and the correct way to document medical necessity and indications.
The lectures will be given by the most experienced in the field. You will be taken through the proper evaluation and management services and documentation step-by-step process, leading to an algorithmic approach to interventional pain management.
This is a course you can't afford to miss!
Course details can be found online. Brochure
Register Today! |
October Cadaver Course Excellent Prep for ABIPP II |
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Act now to grab one of the last remaining spots available for the October Comprehensive Review Course and Cadaver Workshop in Memphis. This is an excellent course to help you prepare for taking the ABIPP Part II practical examination, which will be offered April 25, 2010 in Memphis, TN.
The course will be held on October 9-11 in Memphis, TN, at the historic Peabody Hotel and the world famous Medical Education and Research Institute (MERI). With the choice of multiple experience levels, this course is ideal for those with more basic skills, desiring to develop new skills to those more experienced who are preparing to take the ABIPP Part II examination.
The ABIPP Part II practical examination will be offered for the first time through ABIPP on April 25, 2010 in Memphis, TN. ABIPP will accept the World Institute of Pain's (WIP) Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice (FIPP) certification as fulfillment of the ABIPP Part II for certification prior to April 2009. A revised application indicating this change is now available on the ABIPP Web site.
Per the request of ASIPP Board Member, Gabor B. Racz, MD, special consideration will be made for the 5 candidates for the FIPP examination this month in Budapest. The examination components will be reviewed and if all the regulations have been followed, this exam will be accepted. Absolutely no FIPP certification issued after September 2009 will be accepted.
Register Online Today |
Intrathecal Implantables & Discal Therapies Review Course and Cadaver Workshop |
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Make plans now to attend the Intrathecal Implantables & Discal Therapies Review Course and Cadaver Workshop December 4-6 in Memphis, TN.
This intensive review course and comprehensive intrathecal implantables and discal therapies cadaver workshop will cover all aspects of these techniques providing a comprehensive overview of the subjects, with extensive case discussions and interactions with the faculty. During the 2 ½ day event, participants will experience a comprehensive and intensive learning opportunity.
Whether you have been practicing intrathecal implantables and discal therapies for many years or you are new to the field with basic skills, we are confident you will find this comprehensive review course and hands-on cadaver workshop to be beneficial, as it is essential to learn new and relevant information to survive in the new millennium.
The seminar will be conducted at the Peabody Memphis and the world famous Medical Education and Research Institute ( MERI) in Memphis, TN. Register by November 13 to receive a room discount of $195 per night. Fellows and Residents receive 50% off.
Register Today! |
Health Care Bill - Continue to Write Congress and White House |
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We know most everyone has strong opinions and great fears regarding the pending health care bill. We caution you to pay close attention to the bill; the progress, proposals, and debates.
There are some good aspects to the bill but unfortunately there are many bad aspects that could have dire consequences to our specialty of interventional pain management and the nation in general. Because of this, we urge you to contact Congress immediately and ask your government officials to say "no" to the health care bill as it is currently written.
Once again we have provided you a Capwiz link to send your message. While we provide sample text for those who chose to use it, the letter is editable and you should feel free to change it as you desire. The important thing is to let Congress know how you feel about the bill.
Capwiz link for physicians: http://www.capwiz.com/a sipp/issues/alert/alertid=13785876&type=ML
We also encourage you to get staff, patients and family to get involved. We have provided a link appropriate for non-physicians as well.
Capwiz link for non-physicians: http://www.capwiz.com/a sipp/issues/alert/?alertid=13805151&type=ML |
CMS Releases Final 2010 Hospital Inpatient Payment Rule |
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WASHINGTON - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced late last week that acute care hospitals will receive an inflation update in their payment rates of 2.1 percent in fiscal year 2010.
Earlier this year, CMS had proposed to reduce payments to account for the effect of increases in aggregate payments due to changes in hospital coding practices that do not reflect increases in a patient's severity of illness.
Healthcare Finance News |
RAC audits begin in Regions C, D |
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WASHINGTON - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has begun auditing two of its four regions, affecting 32 states and two U.S. territories. Thus begins Medicare's national Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program. The rest of the nation will see audits beginning in September or October.
IConnolly Consulting, of Wilton, Conn., has launched RAC audits of physician and hospital Medicare billing in Region C, starting in South Carolina and expanding to Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Healthcare Finance News |
Healthcare Debate Fatally Flawed |
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The current debate about healthcare reform in America is fundamentally flawed. A new government sponsored health plan or a new tax to pay for reform will do little to make high quality healthcare more affordable for more people. Unless we get serious about changing the way we deliver healthcare and the way we pay for care, costs will only continue to escalate exponentially.
The way we deliver care today is inefficient and wasteful. The Institute for Health Care Improvement estimates that 30-50 percent of the healthcare services do nothing to improve patient care. The Dartmouth Atlas of healthcare has revealed that the communities with the highest healthcare spending do not have better quality than communities that spend half as much.
Healthcare Finance News |
Lack of CMS Chief Prompts Speculation about Strategy |
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Washington -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is going on three years without a permanent, Senate-confirmed administrator. The White House has given little indication of when President Obama might appoint someone officially to head up the agency, despite the fact that CMS might be expected to play a major role in implementing any health system reforms that lawmakers might pass.
CMS has not had a permanent administrator since Mark B. McClellan, MD, PhD, stepped down in October 2006.
Since January, Charlene Frizzera has served as acting administrator for the agency, which is the largest buyer of health care services in the United States and controls an annual budget of about $700 billion. Lawmakers are considering a reform measure that, if approved, would mean some big changes for the programs under its jurisdiction -- including substantial revisions to the Medicare physician payment system.
amamednews |
Insurers Expect to Pay Out 10% More for Medical Care |
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A new survey predicts it will cost insurers about 10.5% more to pay for members' medical care next year, an increase that will probably be covered through higher premiums or cost-cutting
Even if it doesn't serve to predict precise premiums, the projection by Aon Consulting is an important indicator, said Rick Judy, partner in the Payer Practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Industries Advisory. For physicians, the information offers a tool in contract negotiations and a signal about how intense those negotiations are likely to be.
Amednews.com |
Committee Looks at Taxing Michigan Doctors to Help Avert 12 Percent Medicaid Cuts |
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Michigan State Rep. Gary McDowell, D-Rudyard, said today that the Michigan House-Senate Conference Committee, which is looking for ways to erase a $2.8 billion budget deficit for fiscal 2010, is considering imposing a 3 percent provider tax on more than 15,000 physicians who practice in the state
McDowell said the physician tax could raise $300 million to $400 million and help reduce 8 percent to 12 percent Medicaid cuts, which are being discussed in the conference committee.
Crain's Detroit Business |
Illinois Society Annual Meeting Oct. 6 |
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Reserved your spot today at the Illinois Society of Interventional Pain Physicians' Annual Meeting at Nick's Fishmarket O'Hare in Rosemont, IL, on October 6 at 6 pm. The featured speaker will be Leo Kapural, MD of Cleveland Clinic. Other speakers include Ramsin Benyamin, MD, ASIPP President, and Tim Lubenow, MD, Illinois State Society President.
Click here for more information
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Medical Editors Push for Ghostwriting Crackdown |
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The scientific integrity of medical research has been clouded in recent years by articles that were drafted by drug company-sponsored ghostwriters and then passed off as the work of independent academic authors. Yet the leading medical journals have continued to rely largely on an honor system of disclosure to detect such potential bias, asking authors to voluntarily report any industry ties or contributors to their manuscripts.
But now, in light of recently released evidence that some drug makers have gone to great lengths to turn scientific articles into marketing vehicles for their products, some influential medical editors are cracking down on industry-financed ghostwriting. And they are getting help from some members of Congress.
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New York Times |
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Copyright © 2008
American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians ®
81 Lakeview Drive, Paducah, KY 42001
Phone 270.554.9412, Fax 270.554.5394
E-mail asipp@asipp.org
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