Pain Medicine Practice: How to Succeed in the New Health Care Landscape, and Reasons to Attend the ASA/ASRA Special Pain Program

Rapid changes in health care have been occurring for a number of years, and most recently as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March 2010. All physicians are faced with challenges to their practices that require an in-depth understanding of health care reform and progressive methods to selectively and successfully navigate this new landscape – and these changes are having significant influence over the management of pain practices. Top challenges currently facing physicians include: the transition to the International Statistical Classification of Disease and Related Health Problems Tenth Revision (ICD-10), increasing security risks to your medical practice (e.g., Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and compliance with opioid prescribing), meeting meaningful use requirements, understanding new payment models, collecting co-pays and deductibles, increasing administrative burdens, and growing operational costs. While these changes are influencing patient care at all levels, the impact is also significantly influencing the...