Description:
Join your colleges in exploring the new realm of prescriptive authority recently attained for NDs in the state of Washington. Attend this 2 ½ hour pre-conference course (7:30am-10:00am) and when combined with the following course from 10:00am-6:00pm, First Line Prescribing – Clinic Insights for Using the Expanded Naturopathic Formulary, will provide you with the regulated information required by the Department of Health to obtain a DEA number.
The following information will be included in the first part of the day and the second.

-Patient selection and therapeutics education
-Problem identification & assessment
-Knowledge of interactions
-Recognition and management of complications and untoward reactions
-Education in pain management and drug seeking behaviors
-Prescribing protocols and insights; codeine, testosterone and steroids
-Getting your DEA Number—how and what to expect.

Other topics included are: Hyperlipidemia/HTN, Antidepressants/Anxiety, Asthma/Cough, Musculoskeletal and Diabetes

Schedule:
7:00am Check-in/Registration
7:30am- 9:30am Basic Elements of Prescribing Controlled Substances- Meeting the DOH Requirements
--7:30am Drug Seeking Behaviors - Melissa Weakland, MD
--8:30am Basic Rx - Dawn Ipsen, PharmD
--9:55am Getting your DEA - Robert Martinez, ND (5 min) 
10:00am Plaque Awards and Dr. Church, President of BU, Welcome
10:30am Hyperlipidemia/HTN - Dawn Ipsen, PharnD
11:30am Antidepressants/Anxiety - Lise Anderheggen-Leif, ARNP
12:30pm Lunch (Included in registration fee)
1:30pm Cough/Asthma - David S. Kiefer, MD
2:30pm Musculoskeletal - Yung JaE lEE, do
3:30pm Vendor Break
4:00pm Testosterone - Amanda Brimhall, ND
5:00pm Diabetes - Ryan Bradley, ND
6:00pm Bastyr Alumni & WANP Member Wine Social
Instructor:
-Melissa Weakland, MD
-Dawn Ipsen, PharmD
-Robert Martinez, ND
-Lise Anderheggen-Leif, ARNP
-David Kiefer, MD
-Yung Jae Lee, DO
-Amanda Brimhall, ND
-Ryan Bradley, ND
Registration:  Please contact Bastyr University to register for this program.  Registration is also available online at www.bastyr.edu on their Continuing Education page.

It covers assessment, indications, contraindications, pharmacology and prescription / administration of the chelators for heavy metal indications. It has a strong emphasis on safety, including dealing with adverse events. To register send e-mail to: IVNutritionaltherapy@gmail.com.

The Administrative Simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) mandated the adoption of a standard unique identifier for health care providers. The purpose of these provisions is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the electronic transmission of health information.  The National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) collects identifying information on health care providers and assigns each a unique National Provider Identifier (NPI).  

The purpose of the National Provider Identifier (NPI) is to uniquely identify a health care provider in standard transactions, such as health care claims. NPIs may also be used to identify health care providers on prescriptions or lab orders, in coordination of benefits between health plans, in patient medical record systems, and in other ways. HIPAA requires that covered entities (i.e., health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers who transmit any health information in electronic form in connection with a transaction for which the Secretary of Health and Human Services has adopted a standard) use NPIs in standard transactions by the compliance dates. The compliance date for all covered entities except small health plans is May 23, 2007; the compliance date for small health plans is May 23, 2008. As of the compliance dates, the NPI will be the only health care provider identifier that can be used for identification purposes in standard transactions by covered entities.

To prepare for this date of compliance, it is advisable for all NDs to apply for their NPI now to facilitate a smooth transition.  Those of you who contract with third party payers or reference laboratories may have already been encouraged to do this and will soon be given instructions about how to implement the new identifier over the coming months. 

To apply for you NPI online, visit https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov.  You will be asked for standard identifying information and will have to select your provider taxonomy (naturopath is specified after you select “other” in the initial menu).  There is no fee to apply.  Numbers are usually issued in 2-7 business days.   If you have questions, there is a FAQ link on the webpage listed and there is also an NPI hot line 1-800-465-3203. 

Earlier this year, the Governor created the Blue Ribbon Commission on Healthcare Costs and Access to draft a vision for improving the quality of and access to health care while countering the alarming escalations in cost.  The WANP and other stakeholders were invited to participate in this important process and were given an opportunity to submit formal proposals to the Commission about how best to realize this vision.  This is a huge opportunity for us to bring the wisdom of our medicine to high-level State policy-making discussions and highlight the ways in which the principles of our medicine might be able to address many of the problems inherent in the current health care system.   Now we need YOUR help to make this happen.
 
The WANP submitted a proposal calling for the development of an Evidence-Based Chronic Disease Prevention (EBCDP) program.  Our approach would include Prevention and Wellness within existing performance measures and reimbursement mechanisms so providers and patients would have incentives to spend clinical time preventing chronic disease through lifestyle change counseling.  Dozens of WA healthcare leaders have agreed with us; lifestyle change is a component of almost all evidence-based chronic disease guidelines but has not received the same attention or prioritization as drug treatment.  Our proposal would change this, paving the way for naturopathic physicians (and all primary care providers) to be rewarded, financially and through performance measures, for doing the important work we already do – preventing chronic disease through delivery of evidence-based strategies such as diet, weight loss, smoking cessation, physical activity, and stress reduction.

On October 3rd, Dr. Ryan Bradley gave testimony in support of the WANP’s proposal to the BRC members, including Governor Gregoire herself, calling for the development of these performance measures and the creation of a pilot project (to include NDs) to test these new measures and associated changes in provider incentives within state-funded benefits plans. This testimony was very well received by the Commission and resulted in excellent dialogue with Commission members and other potential regional partners. Since then, we have been meeting with health plan directors, legislators, and public health leaders to gather support for this vision. The process is going extremely well but is expensive and time consuming – we are relying upon the volunteer efforts of our board and committee members who give countless hours of their time and effort to refine these proposals and attend critical meetings with these law- and policy-makers. Special thanks go to Drs. Erica Oberg, Ryan Bradley, Bruce Milliman & Doug Lewis, as well as our lobbyist Terry Kohl for their staid commitment to and supreme effort in this process!

It will ultimately be the support of legislators that will get our proposal approved for inclusion in the State’s plan.  To that end we must support the lawmakers who support us.  Campaign contributions from us help insure these friends of naturopathic medicine remain in office.  Separate form the WANP, the NOW-PAC fund does just this.  To ensure our proposal receives lawmaker support, we urge every licensed physician to contribute now to the NOW-PAC fund.  With you help, we can work toward shifting our current disease-management system of health care to one of education, prevention, and health promotion.  MAKE YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO THE NOW-PAC TODAY – AND HELP US PUT HEALTH BACK INTO HEALTHCARE!

Thank you to all who supported the Protect Our Scope Fund.  Your contributions made it possible for the WANP to utilize the legal support necessary to negotiate effectively with Department of Health (DOH) in this process.  The DOH released the second revision of the draft rules on October 23rd.  This 2nd draft was a significant improvement over the preliminary draft and the improvements reflected in no small part the feedback that the WANP provided during the revision process. We are continuing to work with the DOH as the draft gets finalized. This is an ongoing and collaborative process that changes daily and we will keep our members apprised of any important developments as they emerge.  

Click on each photo for larger image.

Picture 1 (from left to right): Administrative staff member, Laurie Mischley ND, Christian Dodge ND, Calvin Dodge, Rep. Cody (chair), Rep. Dickerson, Sen. Keiser (chair), Rep. Clibborn (bill sponsor), Rep. Green, Amy Hobson ND, Gov. Gregoire (seated), Jason Allen ND, Kasra Pournadeali ND, Terry Kohl (WANP Lobbyist), Bruce Milliman ND, Rep Bailey (RMM), Sen Kohl-Welles, Ryan Bradley ND, Sen Pflug, DOH Secretary Mary Selecky, Erica Oberg ND.

Picture 2 (from left to right): Amy Hobson ND, Christian Dodge ND, Calvin Dodge, Terry Kohl (WANP Lobbyist), Rep. Clibborn (bill sponsor), Sen. Thibaudeau (bill sponsor), Kasra Pournadeali ND, Gov. Gregoire, Bruce Milliman ND, Sen. Kohl-Welles, Rep. Bailey (RRM), Sen. Pflug

Our February WANP Bulletin will have new content and interests. Our goal is to create in the bulletin the foundations of a forum for the advancement of our profession and the development of our community. The organizers of this issue will be pulling together information from a variety of sources to take an in-depth look at the burning topic of influenza.

With your help, this bulletin will also include:

• Case Studies - we are calling for notable cases written up in narrative form including discussion of presenting symptoms, diagnosis, analysis of treatment, follow up or outcomes, and references.
• Announcements from members - both personal and professional.

Submission deadline is January 17th, the bulletin will be distributed February 1st.

Please send us your announcements, cases or other--we look forward to hearing from you! Contact Aimee Bell, Association Manager at executive@wanp.org or 206.547.2130.

Editors of the WANP Bulletin & The Community Outreach Committee

Future Bulletin submission deadlines and publication dates:
Friday, April 15/May 1
Friday, July 15/August 1
Friday, October 14/November 1