2023 Virginia Session Summary
Victory in the fight against cancer requires bold new public policies that promote cancer prevention, early detection of cancer, expanded access to quality, affordable health care.
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ACS CAN’s 2016 Pain Policy Report Card
July 19, 2016
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) works hard to call attention to the nationwide issue of unrelieved pain. This is important because patients often face significant barriers to pain treatment. Pain is also a huge contributor to rising health care costs, which is already a substantial financial burden on the shoulders of individuals and families who are going through treatment.
To track and simplify the progress of each state’s pain policy, we worked with researchers at the University of Wisconsin to create a progress report card, “Achieving Balance in Pain Policy” based on 16 evaluated criteria.The report gave each state a letter grade from “A” to “F” and then compared those grades with grades received in the past. The goal of the report is to educate lawmakers, the media and the general public about what can be done to ensure people have access to pain treatment within their state and that restrictions aimed at reducing misuse and abuse of pain medicine do not interfere with patients’ ability to get the medications they need.
Overall, the report found that while states have made considerable progress over the last decade enacting policies that enhance access to pain care and reducing potential treatment barriers, this progress has slowed in recent years. Only seven states improved their grades from two years ago, while 6 actually slid backward. Thirteen states, including Virginia, Alabama and Oregon, did receive “A” ratings for their strong, balanced pain policies due state laws and regulations that:
- Understand that pain is an important reason why people seek medical attention
- Recognize opioids as a legitimate treatment of pain
- Distinguish between addiction, dependence and pain medication tolerance.
- In other words, states should recognize that people might have to have their dosage increased overtime because of tolerance, not because of addiction or abuse.
Some criteria that may have reduced other statess scores may include:
- Policies that might restrict the ability to prescribe opioids
- Any policies that imply that opioids are not medically appropriate
- Provisions that may be misinterpreted or are ambiguous
- Any other policy that may restrict the ability of prescribers to do their job in addressing their patients’ pain.
The report analysis is evidence there is still much work to be done to ensure that any measures put in place to curb the public health crisis around opioid abuse and misuse also stress the need for balance, and improved pain policies are in fact reaching patients. States play an important role in the development of pain policy and should continue to be guided by science and medicine to maintain balanced policies that preserve doctor-patient decision making and ensure cancer patients have appropriate access to pain relief.