AMA, Other Leading Medical Organizations Urge Insurance for Non-Pharma/Integrative Pain Care

The nation's crisis in pain treatment and need to reduce opioid dependence has lifted a powerful chorus of voices to change insurance practices. The American Medical Association is among the organizations urging payers to cover non-pharmacological approaches. Many specifically extend this call to integrative treatments. The statements were discovered by representatives of the Acupuncture Now Foundation (ANF) and the American Society of Acupuncturists (ASA) among comments submitted to the USA Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC had a public comment period prior to its March 2016 issuance of its Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. Stated Mathew Bauer, LAc, ANF president: "Mainstream group after mainstream group [is] telling the CDC that physicians can't act on the CDC's number one recommendation regarding how to avoid relying on opioids because of a lack of insurance coverage for CAM/integrative therapies. I have never seen anything like this." Among those echoing the AMA in calling for this reform of insurance practices are the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), American Pain Society (APS), Medical Board of California (MBC), American College of Physicians (ACP), American Academy of Pain Management (AAPM, now AIPM), and Trust for America's Health (TFAH). The comments are detailed in a recent editorial published online in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (JACM). Some sample comments provided by ANF/ASA t...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news