Advocacy

APS Advocacy Agenda

Goal 1: Increase Federal Funding for Pain Research

Objective 1: Support infrastructure and mechanisms for increased funding of pain specific research by federal agencies.
  • Support the National Pain Care Policy Act of 2007
  • Support the Military and Veterans Pain Care Act of 2007
  • Support increased appropriation for pain research funding through Department of Defense and/or VA appropriations vehicles
Objective 2: Identify gaps in current pain research that affect the translation of research findings from bench to bedside and to community practice.
  • APS will define translational pain research needs, barriers to this research and recommendations on how funding agencies and Congress can overcome these barriers.

Goal 2: Improve the Viability of Effective Clinical Pain Management Services Through Educational Initiatives and Removal of Barriers to Interdisciplinary Approaches to Care

Objective 1: Educate providers, insurers, and the public regarding best practices in the management of pain.
  • Require the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to
    • Collect and disseminate protocols and evidence-based practices regarding pain care to clinicians and the general public
    • Fund educational and training programs for health care professionals in pain care.
Objective 2: Remove barriers hampering access to and reimbursement for interdisciplinary approaches to pain care.
  • Require Medicare Advantage plans to offer appropriate care for the treatment of patients in pain, including specialty and tertiary care for patients with intractable pain.
  • Require CMS to submit to Congress an annual report on Medicare expenditures for pain care under parts A, B, and D of the program.
  • Support a Medicare demonstration program providing alternative payment arrangements for multidisciplinary chronic pain care.
Objective 3: Remove barriers hampering access to and reimbursement for the treatment of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders in patients with pain.
  • Support Congressional efforts to mandate mental health and substance abuse treatment parity in commercial health insurance.

Goal 3: Inform the National Debate and Policy Development on Diversion and Abuse of Opioid Analgesics by Supporting Research that Will Provide Objective Data

Objective 1: Support changes in rules and regulations that utilize language that reflects contemporary understanding of the terms addiction, dependence, and tolerance.
Objective 2: Support federal funding of research on the factors involved in pain and prescription opioid abuse.
Objective 3: Support efforts by the National Pain Work Group and its Balanced Pain Policy Initiative to ensure that all people in pain have access to appropriate medications, but that controlled-substance pain prescriptions are not misused or used for illicit purposes.
Objective 4: Develop evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on the use of opioids.