A Single Point of Access for frontline practitioners
PAINWeekEnd Austin 2019 | Saturday 4/27/19
This is a 1-day meeting and will provide 6 CE/CME credits.
Practicing Healthcare Professionals: $129
In order to maintain the clinical nature of the conference, nonclinicians—including, but not limited to, office managers, billing specialists, receptionists, and administrative staff; guests, spouses, friends, and/or family members—may not attend PAINWeekEnd.
Unfortunately, we do not have discounts available on hotel rooms. Please contact the hotel directly should you require accommodations.
The Hilton Austin
500 E 4th St.
Austin, TX 78701
Get Directions using Google Maps
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Faculty and courses are subject to change. Please refer to the online agenda below for the most recent course descriptions.
To view the agenda below, click on the + sign next to the day of the conference to expand the conference agenda. Click on the + signs within the agenda to view the course description, UAN number, and AANP pharmacology credits.
*not certified for credit
Coffee will be served.
The prescription drug problem in America has led to many guidelines and, in some cases, regulations aimed at stemming the tide of prescription drug abuse. Some are evidence based, but most are driven by fear and an overwhelming need to do “something.” Unfortunately, while these guidelines have offered suggestions of how to apply this information in a clinical context going forward, they provide little information as to the management of those patients who already exceed these current guidelines. This is where the concept of the “inherited patient” comes into play. Some of these patients are doing well while some are doing quite poorly. The undeniable fact is that as these guidelines are being exceeded, risk of a bad outcome increases while likelihood of achieving therapeutic goals decreases. This workshop will, through the use of representative cases, help participants to recognize irrational pharmacotherapy and, when necessary, address it through a combination of pharmacological as well as biopsychosocial frameworks.
Breakfast will be served.
Sponsored by kaléo.
Nonopioid analgesics are oftentimes considered first-line therapy for most chronic pain syndromes. A strong understanding of these agents’ mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, and toxicity profiles is paramount for today’s pain practitioner. This course will provide an in-depth look at each of the agents within these drug classes, their potential role in pain management, and available data supporting their use. Additionally, clinically relevant monitoring pearls will be discussed.
Through the lens of medical expert testimony and case examples, attendees will learn core areas of risk mitigation with a focus on making electronic medical records and paper charting work for the practitioner to demonstrate prescribing in the usual course of professional practice. Overdose—a small word that packs a major punch, and a big reason for recent legal-regulatory changes in controlled substance prescribing and medication assisted treatment (MAT). Too often, prescribers are caught unprepared to respond to licensing board and legal inquiries surrounding overdose events. Many prescribers haven’t examined their own risk mitigation and documentation processes following changes to prescribing guidelines and rules, or even after learning about a patient’s emergency room visit or demise. Many prescribers also lack a structured approach to patient education to mitigate the risks associated with the use of controlled substances, errantly relying solely on a piece of paper to capture what should be a process of informed consent. Professional licensing board and criminal cases involving overdose events do not usually end well for the unprepared prescriber. Yet, there is much the prescriber can do proactively to signal his/her intent to prescribe for a legitimate medical purpose while acting in the usual course of professional practice and taking “reasonable steps” to mitigate abuse and diversion of controlled medication. This educational program includes lessons learned by the speaker through more than a decade of chart audits and legal case work. Attendees will have access to one or two sample templates that can be used to improve daily charting and to demonstrate adherence to risk evaluation, monitoring, and common documentation requirements. While prescribers cannot control what their patients do once they leave the medical office, they are responsible for establishing a safe framework for opioid prescribing, including a proper response when something goes wrong. This lecture will help the prescriber demonstrate thoughtful prescribing in the “usual course of professional practice” and improve the prescriber’s chances of minimizing legal liability associated with patient overdose.
Lunch will be served.
Sponsored by SCILEX.
The subject of the medical use of cannabinoids has become an extremely hot topic. Unfortunately, there has been a tendency to equate medical cannabinoids with another very contentious topic: Medical Marijuana. In this presentation, the distinction between medical cannabinoids and medical cannabis will be explored. Specifically, the challenges facing prescribers who are being asked to prescribe medical marijuana will be examined.
Multidrug therapy, also known as rational polypharmacy, has been a part of treatment approaches for chronic pain for many years. This course will review the concept of rational polypharmacy as it applies to the treatment of migraine, neuropathic pain, and musculoskeletal pain conditions.
Drug testing is part of a complete patient evaluation and ongoing risk monitoring in most medical practice settings when treatment involves long-term use of controlled medication. Today’s licensing board guidelines and rules, and position papers published by professional societies, make clear that drug testing should be performed and test results should be used in a timely fashion to guide medical decision-making prior to initiating controlled substance therapy, especially in the nonterminal, subacute, and chronic settings, and in ongoing patient risk monitoring and corresponding treatment plan adjustments. If a provider has his/her own clinical laboratory, or certain types of business arrangements with an independent clinical laboratory, failure to appreciate a new federal law impacting clinical laboratory or payor policies setting forth documentation requirements for medically necessary testing may spell financial disaster for the provider. Providers should review their current drug testing practices and, where applicable, coverage and reimbursement policies, to improve their ability to demonstrate quality patient care and adherence to the ever-developing body of laws and regulations governing controlled substance prescribing. Providers in business relationships with independent clinical laboratories or laboratory set-up companies should be generally familiar with a new federal law that may render suspect or unlawful certain aspects of these business arrangements, which may potentially expose the provider to allegations of fraud and abuse or recoupment for overpayments. Providers who proactively address any deficiencies or weaknesses in their use of drug testing in the context of controlled substance prescribing will largely minimize the potential for bad patient outcomes and related legal liability associated with controlled substance prescribing and the financial aspects of clinical laboratory. Using a series of “do this, not that” cases, attendees will learn how to distinguish poor workflow and documentation in drug testing from efficient and effective assimilation of standards of care and payor policies on medical necessity into their personal styles of patient evaluation and ongoing care. Attendees will be given two basic tools to reinforce learning objectives: a workflow template and an adaptable form to help the provider make timely and reasonably prudent ongoing treatment decisions, all of which may help the provider minimize the potential for an overdose event.
To accompany and enrich your experience at the PAINWeekEnd conference, be sure to attend one or more of the sponsored programs, which are scheduled during breakfast, lunch, and afternoon "Brain Food" time slots in the schedule. There is NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE to attend these program sessions!