Wyden, Smith, Hooley Introduce “Conquering
Pain Act”
Bipartisan Legislation Will Help Patients,
Doctors, Families Deal with Chronic Pain
June 18, 2003
Washington, DC B Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and
Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), along with Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-Ore.),
today introduced the bipartisan Conquering Pain Act. This legislation,
now being offered in the Senate and the House, is designed to
provide patients, doctors and families with the information
and tools they need to fight chronic pain.
“Too many Americans suffer from agonizing
pain not because medical science can’t help them, but
because the health care system doesn’t prioritize the
treatment of pain like it should,” said Wyden. “This
legislation will make the medical system more responsive to
patients and their families dealing with pain, and also to the
caring medical providers who want to help their patients fight
pain more effectively.”
“No one should have to live in agony or
spend their last days in suffering,” said Smith. “Pain
management is an often overlooked, but essential, element of
health care. When there is no cure for an illness, effective
pain management is necessary to adequately help a patient.”
“The Conquering Pain Act will make a big
difference in the lives of everyday Americans who are struggling
with quality-of-life issues,” said Hooley. “By improving
care rather than by more closely scrutinizing care, we can improve
the quality of life for those who suffer from chronic pain nationwide,
not just in Oregon.”
Forty to 50 percent of dying patients experience
moderate to severe pain at least half of the time in the last
days of their lives. A 2001 Brown University study found that
40 percent of nursing home patients do not get adequate relief
for their acute or chronic pain. The Conquering Pain Act will:
* Establish six National Family Support Networks
in Pain and Symptom
* Management to develop an interdisciplinary approach
to pain treatment, including counseling services; provide community
leadership in expanding public access to pain care; provide
caregiver support; develop a research agenda; establish telemedicine
links between communities; and develop effective means of providing
24-hour assistance to providers and families to assist patients
in pain.
* Require the development of an Internet site
or the enhancement of an existing Internet site to provide pain
management guidelines to individuals, health care practitioners
and health facilities.
* Require Medicare, Medicaid and other federally
administered health programs to inform individuals that they
have a right to pain management.
* Mandate a report by the Surgeon General on the
state of pain and symptom management in the United States.
The Conquering Pain Act also mandates research
to determine how financial barriers may prevent effective treatment
for some patients in pain from receiving effective treatment;
calls for the improvement of Federal coordination of policy,
research and information; and provides for demonstration projects
to set professional performance standards for pain treatment
and to deal with pain in end-of-life care.
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