July 2026 President’s Message

AAPM July 2026 President’s Message

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

As many of you may know, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will implement the ASM (Ambulatory Specialty Model), a program that requires Value-based reimbursement for specialty care, on January 1, 2027. This initiative represents a significant shift in pain medicine. We need to understand why now and how we can be prepared. During AAPM’s annual meeting, PainConnect 2026, our keynote speakers focused on value-based care and the other on intervention. One month later, CMS announced the ASM model.

Value-based care is moving quickly from concept to operational reality for pain medicine. Beginning in January 2027, CMS is expected to implement the Ambulatory Specialty Model, a mandatory value-based reimbursement model for selected specialists that will initially focus on low back pain and heart failure. For our specialty, this represents a meaningful shift. Pain care will increasingly be evaluated not only by the services we provide, but by documented outcomes, functional improvement, care coordination, patient experience, and total cost of care.

As AAPM President, I invite you to join me on Monday, August 3, 2026, at 8:00 pm Eastern for a free member webinar with AAPM Past President Kayode Williams, MD, MBA, FFARCSI. Together, we will discuss what value-based care means for pain medicine, why this conversation matters now, and how pain physicians and care teams can begin preparing for this evolving reimbursement environment. This is an important moment for our field, and AAPM is committed to helping members understand the changes ahead and prepare with clarity, confidence, and purpose.

Watch your email for more details about the webinar and an opportunity to register.

The AAPM Pain Medicine Policy Committee is preparing a response to the OMB Federal Funding Uniform Guidance proposed rule changes. Please read the brief update on our Advocacy Efforts page and respond to the very short survey, which will be used to finalize our comments. Please respond by July 9th.

It is my pleasure to congratulate Pain Medicine on achieving a significant milestone: its 2025 Impact Factor has risen to 4.0, up from 3.0 the previous year. Pain Medicine, the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, is now ranked 12 out of 172 (Q1) in the Anesthesiology category. This reflects its growing influence and marks the largest absolute increase among comparable journals. On behalf of the Academy, I extend our congratulations to Editor-in-Chief Dr. Robert Hurley, Deputy Editors-in-Chief Dr. Zachary McCormick, Dr. Claudia Campbell, Managing Editor Colleen Healy, and the entire editorial team.

I am happy to share that the AAPM Consensus Guidelines on Neuromodulation Technologies and Neurocomputer Interfaces for Pain Management and Functional Recovery manuscript has been accepted for publication in the Pain Medicine Journal. Led by Trent Emerick, MD, PhD, MBA, the guideline’s objective is to provide an evidence-based framework for healthcare professionals to use neuromodulation technologies to restore neuromuscular function and relieve pain. We are so thankful for the consensus panel, which worked for over 17 months to produce the manuscript. I would also like to thank Dr. Antje Barreveld for her work shepherding the project and supporting Dr. Emerick and the entire team behind the scenes.

The guideline would not have been possible without unrestricted grants and sponsorship from Mainstay Medical, AppliedVR, and H-Wave. The contributing authors are Kevin E. Vorenkamp, MD, Vinicius Tieppo Francio, MD, Shriya Srinivasan, PhD, Priyanka Singla, MD, Joel Castellanos, MD, Farshad Ahadian, MD, Zheyan Chen, MD, PhD, Anna Lepesteur Gianlorenco, PhD, Danielle Sarno, MD, Nalini Sehgal, MD, Nikhil Murthy, MD, and Antje Barreveld, MD. There is more to come as we prepare webinars and additional clinical tools related to this paper. For information, access the paper HERE.

I am very excited to share that the AAPM New Membership Models we discussed during our Townhalls and PainConnect 2026 will take effect later this summer. The updated membership model is designed to make your member experience clearer, more relevant, and better aligned with your professional role and career stage.

Our updated model and associated dues are part of a broader effort to modernize how you engage with AAPM. These updates will help ensure that AAPM continues to deliver high-quality programs while investing in the technology and resources that support our members. You can look forward to a better membership. For more information, I encourage you to review the update located here. AAPM Membership Updates. If you have questions, feel free to connect with me or our Member Services Specialist, Alexandra Moya-Clark, at amoyaclark@painmed.org.

Warm regards,

Marie Hanna, MD, MEHP

AAPM President

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