Update: S.483 Ensuring Patient Access and National Pain Strategy

It’s hard to believe that it has been a year since I first made a call to action on S.483. 

A lot has happened since then. The act was signed into law by President Obama on April 19, 2016. That’s right, just last month. In March, the CDC opioid Guidelines went through despite outrage regarding the lack of transparency and biased, non-evidence based reports on opioids that led to the development of the guidelines. The National Pain Strategy (NPS), which was drafted to the Federal Registry last year, was also released in March after a long and concerted effort by many engaged individuals and stakeholders, but not without incident. A comment was added on the NIH Interagency Coordinating Committee website, the HHS committee that drafted the guidelines, suggesting the CDC Opioid Guidelines would help implement the strategy, despite no such reference in the original NPS draft.

The National Pain Strategy

The Pain Action Alliance to Implement a National Strategy is an initiative formed by the Center for Practical Bioethics. My friend, Myra Christopher, contributed to the development of the Institute of Medicine Report on Relieving Pain in America. She and many others knew as a result of that report a strategy was needed to address the problems identified having to do with access to medications and treatments, discrimination in pain care, and the stigma associated with chronic pain. Along  with other stakeholders Myra participated in helping draft the National Pain Strategy (NPS).  Myra and PAINS are now calling on President Obama to see that actions are taken to make the necessary funds available to carry out the plan. The letter is riveting and I hope you will read it. Here is an excerpt.

1.       Immediately direct the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop and, before the end of 2016, initiate a plan across all federal agencies to restore balance between federal efforts to reduce drug abuse and efforts to reduce the burden of pain in order to establish parity between these two critical public health issues…

2.      Designate a specific agency to be responsible for implementation of the National Pain Strategy Report and establish an independent work group, including people living with both chronic pain and opioid abuse disorder and/or family members, primary care providers and specialists who treat chronic pain, behavioral health experts, complementary care providers, third party payers, patient advocacy groups, and bioethicists to…

3.      Direct CMS to establish chronic pain care as an essential health benefit as quickly as possible and to adequately fund:

a.      Comprehensive chronic pain care provided in primary care medical homes and inter-disciplinary, comprehensive pain clinics,

b.      Evidence-based complementary therapies, including yoga, massage therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic and osteopathic manipulation (those therapies specifically listed in the DOD pain report), and

c.      Abuse deterrent opioid formulations.

Can S.483 Work to Support Patients Who Have Been Abandoned?

As a result of the CDC guidelines and reports that the DEA is charging full force, I have received many emails and messages regarding patients being forced to taper off their opioids or stop them completely. Of particular interest is what is happening to patients in Buffalo, New York, but it is only one example of what is happening across the nation. Because I have been overwhelmed and I donate my time to advocacy, I felt the need to provide patients with some guidelines that will hopefully help them make a case to take to their attorney general. Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2015,  S.483, also protects patients and gives you the right to make sure it is enforced for everyone, including those of us who live with chronic pain. 

 “There's a difference between interest and commitment. 

When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when it's convenient. 

When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses; only results.”

~Kenneth Blanchard

Additional Reading:

A good overview of the NPS.

Gosy and Associates to reopen under new supervision. Bridge the gap solution within 75 days, really?

(Signature line appended, March 2018)

In healing,

Celeste Cooper, RN / Author, Freelancer, Advocate

Think adversity?-See opportunity!

http://www.CelesteCooper.com

Call to action on S.483 and the National Pain Strategy

Update 5/8/2019: S.483 was signed by President Obama 4/19/2016. An update will be coming as time allows. However, please follow the link to the letter to President Obama from PAINS. While research on addiction is important, we need money allocated to investigate treatments for chronic pain that includes alternative therapies, and yes, opioids. Chronic pain affects far more people than addiction, yet few seem to realize that. We need evidence that will ensure access to medications that are available now. 

Following is my letter to President Obama, my state senators and representatives. Please join me in asking your legislators to pass laws that will provide chronic pain patients the care we need and change how pain is perceived, judged and treated in America.  Let them know you want them to support legislation that coherently and collaboratively addresses all aspects of pain. Let's bring research funding, proven integrative care, and access to medications to the table. Let them know how you want them to respond when legislation passes to them. Send them the letter from PAINS to President Obama, as I have.  You can find contact information for your legislators on my website at: http://www.celestecooper.com/sample-advocacy-letter.html

 
“Those who have learned by experience what physical pain and bodily anguish mean, belong together all the world over; 
they are united by a secret bond.” 

- Albert Schweitzer 

Dear____

As an RN, chronic pain patient, advocate, writer, and published author of self-help books for coping with chronic pain, I ask that you please read the letter sent to President Obama from the Pain Action Alliance to Implement a National Strategy asking him to make the finances and tools available to implement the National Pain Strategy. Chronic pain patients and those suffering from opioid addiction deserve compassionate, effective treatment. I have lived with chronic pain since childhood, having suffered life-long chronic migraine. Now in my “golden years” I suffer from more than one chronic pain condition, two for which we know little about and one that is extensive and inoperable. To withhold the medication that allows me to do the things I write about or to look at me differently because an opioid is the only medication that helps me is inhumane. To make decisions based on media sensationalism instead of reliable evidence is not democratic, nor is it the values this land is supposed to stand for. It is equally deplorable that addicts are kicked out of treatment before they are ready. Mental health care in the United States is not outcome based; it is driven by ability to pay. These things must change, but they will not unless we have your support.

[US Senators]

Please enact legislation such as S.483 introduced by Senator Orrin Hatch, and other legislation that will move the National Pain Strategy forward. 

[US Legislator]

Please support H.R. 471 (S. 483) legislation  introduced by Rep. Tom Marino, and other legislation that will move the National Pain Strategy forward.

Please read:

Letter to President Obama from the Pain Action Alliance to Implement a National Strategy

Thank You

~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ 

Also see:

Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Actof 2015 - S. 483 H.R. 471 A Template Letter Chronic Pain

Others in support of the NPS: 

• Pain Action Alliance to Implement A National Strategy (PAINS) 
• The National Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain Association (NFMCPA) 
• The US Pain Foundation    
• State Pain Policy Advocacy Network (SPPAN)   
• The American Academy of Pain Management (AAPM) 
• The American Academy of Pain Medicine 
• Consumer Pain Advocacy Task Force (CPTAF) 

            CPTAF also sent a letter to the Senate HELP Committee 

• Dr. Sean Mackey, Stanford University Pain Research, and Dr. Lynn Webster, Past President of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, author and producer (see interview, here). 
• Other organizations, and individuals, many outlined at the end of the PAINS letter, those who are on the steering committee at PAINS, and those aligned with the CPTAF (also listed at the end of their letter to the US Senate HELP committee noted above).

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

"Adversity is only an obstacle if we fail to see opportunity."  

Celeste Cooper, RN

Author—Patient—Health Central Chronic Pain Pro —Advocate

Celeste’s Website: http://CelesteCooper.com

Learn more about what you can do to help your body function to its potential in the books you can find here on Celeste's  blog. Subscribe to posts by using the information in the upper right hand corner or use the share buttons to share with others.

All answers and blogs are based on the author's opinions and writing and are not meant to replace medical advice.