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APS Bulletin • Volume 11, Number 4, July/August 2001
President's Message
National Pain Care Policy Act of 2001
Michael A. Ashburn, MD MPH
The American Pain Society (APS), through the Pain Care Coalition (PCC), is considering supporting a comprehensive pain bill that we hope to have introduced and considered by Congress. This bill, currently titled National Pain Care Policy Act of 2001, has been developed by PCC over the past 12 months.
PCC was created several years ago as a way for the forming organizations to monitor federal policy making related to pain care and research. PCC was instrumental in obtaining the declaration of the Decade of Pain Control and Research, which was passed by Congress and signed into law last year. We hope to use the Decade as a springboard for greater accomplishments in the upcoming years.
The full text of the draft bill can be found in the Members Only section of the APS Web site at www.ampainsoc.org. This proposed legislation has not been introduced into Congress yet. It is currently undergoing review and revision by several professional organizations.
In brief, the proposed legislation calls for the following:
- A White House Conference on Pain Care
- The creation of a national Center for Pain Research within NIH
- Funding for pain and palliative care education and training through the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality
- The creation of pain care standards within Medicare + Choice plans to ensure payment for appropriate interdisciplinary pain care within these plans
- An annual report on Medicare expenditures for pain care services, which will require CMS (formerly HCFA) to treat pain medicine as a physician specialty
Once consensus on the content of the proposed legislation has been reached by PCC as well as other interested organizations, an effort will be started to obtain support for the legislation to be introduced for consideration by the House and Senate. This effort will require input from APS members, encouraging their Senators and Representatives to cosponsor and support the legislation.
Now is your chance to review and comment on the bill. APS and PCC need your review and input to ensure that the draft legislation has the best chance to meetmembership needs. Please send any comments or suggestions for improvement Cynthia Porter, APS associate director, at cporter@amctec.com. All comments are welcome, as the APS wants to support legislation that will best meet the needs of our membership.
This is an exciting opportunity for APS to take a leadership role in the development and advocacy for legislation that will improve pain care and research. This is a rare opportunity, so we need to make every effort to take advantage of it.
National Pain Care Policy Act of 2001 Draft Bill
