Agreement on Board Certification

Combining the World Institute of Pain’s exam in interventional techniques and the new American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians’ focus on competency in U.S. standards of controlled substance and coding, compliance and practice management will help American interventional pain physicians soon obtain board certification.

The World Institute of Pain and the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians have reached an agreement for U.S. physicians to obtain board certification in interventional pain management with the ultimate goal of being recognized by state medical licensure boards and the American Board of Medical Specialties.

The joint venture will get under way in March 2006, when WIP and ABIPP will offer review courses and examinations in Memphis to allow physicians to become board certified. However, physicians may start the process as early as Sept. 12.

ASIPP recently formed the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians to offer board certification for interventional pain physicians. Its first examinations will be offered Sept. 12 in Washington, DC, for competency certification in controlled substance management and coding, compliance and practice management.

WIP started the worldwide Fellowship of Interventional Pain Practice in recent years to examine and certify physicians in interventional techniques. Currently, 116 of the approximately 180 physicians who have completed the program reside in the U.S.

U.S. physicians who already have earned the WIP’s FIPP designation can complete board certification by passing ABIPP’s Sept. 12 competency exams.

ABIPP will start credentialing and provide reciprocity from November 2005.

The need for cooperation

ASIPP CEO Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, said because FIPP is not a U.S. exam, the U.S. Government Accountability Office had questioned how U.S. interventional pain physicians’ competency could be evaluated. Therefore, ASIPP formed the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians to evaluate competency in the areas of controlled substance and coding, compliance and practice management.

Meanwhile, Prithvi Raj, MD, WIP board member and chairman emeritus of its FIPP exam, said WIP realizes that each country has different needs. WIP wants a U.S. chapter to help American physicians achieve the necessary training and certification to meet U.S. standards. For example, he said, physicians outside the U.S. do not need training in U.S. coding, compliance and practice management issues.

Therefore, a partnership between the two groups will help U.S. physicians obtain board certification.

A united effort for board certification

Representing the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians (from left) are doctors Hans Hansen, Arthur Jordan, Vijay Singh, Laxmaiah Manchikanti; with WIP's Gabor Racz and Prithvi Raj; and Mark Boswell and Andrea Trescot, ABIPP. The group met in August 2005 in St. Louis to coordinate efforts on interventional pain physician board certification.

Advantages for ABIPP

For board certification, ABIPP will use the WIP’s FIPP for its practical examination, along with ABMS approved subspecialty in pain medicine certification and ABIPP’s controlled substance and coding, compliance and practice management certificates or ABIPP’s written examination.

By cooperating with WIP, ABIPP will not have to create its own practical exam and it will be able to grandfather in any of the 116 U.S. FIPP physicians who wish to get ABIPP board certification. They will simply need to take the two competency exams in controlled substance and coding, compliance and practice management, if they have successfully completed ABMS-approved pain medicine subspecialty examination.

When ABIPP has 100 certified physicians representing one-third of all states, it can go to state medical licensing boards and the American Board of Medical Specialties for recognition.

Advantages for WIP

By cooperating in the ABIPP certification process, the FIPP program will gain credibility in the U.S.

Physicians seeking ABIPP certification will take the FIPP practical exam.

The partnership should lead to ABMS recognition more quickly than either organization could achieve operating alone, organizers said.

A combined task force

The two organizations agreed to appoint three members each to a task force to keep communications open. Also, each organization will have one board member serve on the other organization’s board of directors.

The agreement is for five years and likely will be permanent, unless it is dissolved for cause.

Architects of the joint venture

Representatives of the two organizations met Aug. 6, 2005, in St. Louis to finalize details of the agreement.

Representing the World Institute of Pain were these attendees: Gabor Racz, MD, president; (by telephone from Turkey), Serdar Erdine, MD, president-elect and chairman of the FIPP Board of Examination; and P. Prithvi Raj, MD, board member and chairman emeritus of its FIPP exam.

Representing the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians were these attendees: Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, chief executive officer; Vijay Singh, MD, president-elect; Andrea M. Trescot, MD, executive vice president; Hans C. Hansen, MD, vice president financial affairs; Arthur E. Jordan, MD, board member.

Also present were Mark V. Boswell, MD, PhD, executive director, and Dona Rains, director of operations, for the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians.