50+ Organizations Unite to Address Opioid Epidemic and Overcome Barriers to Pain Care

The first-ever Integrative Pain Care Policy Congress will bring together 75 leaders from more than 50 organizations committed to advancing individualized care for people with pain. Attendees represent the full scope of licensed and certified health care professionals involved in pain care, along with insurers, people with pain, researchers, policymakers, and policy experts.

The Academy of Integrative Pain Management (AIPM) is hosting the Congress in partnership with the Integrative Health Policy Consortium, PAINS Project, and the Alliance for Balanced Pain Management. The event will take place on Oct. 21-22, 2017 in San Diego during AIPM’s 28th Annual Meeting.

The growing number of well-intentioned pain management guidelines and policies — both state and federal — are impacting the health care that is available to those in need of acute and chronic pain management. These policies have good intentions, but the complexity created by overlapping efforts has resulted in conflicting stakeholder recommendations, in many instances prolonging pain and encouraging addiction. To address these concerns and develop effective solutions for inadequate pain treatment and opioid-related harms are far beyond the capacities of any one organization. This Congress brings together leaders in integrative pain care with the expertise, effort, and resources to develop areas of consensus and strategies for collaboration.

“National efforts to reduce opioid prescribing continue to ignore significant and compelling data that proves pain care is not one-size-fits-all, and, instead, requires comprehensive, integrative care,” said Robert Twillman, Ph.D., executive director AIPM. “Providers and patients continue to have their treatment choices limited by what payers are covering. While state and federal policies are urging clinicians to use non-drug therapies first, insurers are waiting for more robust evidence to justify paying for these therapies, leaving patients in the lurch. As a result, patients are suffering needlessly and the opioid epidemic continues to challenge the nation.”

This Congress will connect key stakeholders in constructive discussion to:

• Achieve consensus on the definition of comprehensive, integrative pain care.
• Review the evidence base for this approach to pain management, and identify the gaps.
• Explore payment models that take into account the intersections between pain management, addiction, and behavioral health.
• Develop a meaningful action plan for Congress participants, working toward consensus policy and advocacy goals for 2018.

About the Academy of Integrative Pain Management

The Academy of Integrative Pain Management is the premier organization for all clinicians who care for people with pain. It is the largest pain management organization in the nation and the only one that embraces, as part of its mission statement, an integrative model of care, which: is person-centered; considers the whole person; encourages healthful lifestyle changes as part of the first line of treatment to restore wellness; is evidence-based; brings together all appropriate therapeutic approaches to reduce pain and achieve optimal health and healing; and, encourages a team approach. For more on the Academy, visit http://www.integrativepainmanagement.org.