Federal Action
National Updates – December 2023
NIH Releases Report on Pain Management Research from the HEAL Initiative Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have released an overview of the pain research programs within the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL...
National Updates – November 2023
NHIS Data Shows Opioid Use for Chronic Pain is Down with No Corresponding Increase in Nonpharmacologic Therapies According to Prevalence of Pharmacologic and Nonpharmacologic Pain Management Therapies Among Adults with Chronic Pain—United States, 2020, recently...
National Updates – October 2023
American Psychological Association Accepting Public Comment on Draft Guidelines for Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain in Adults The American Psychological Association (APA) is currently accepting public comments on its Draft APA Clinical Practice Guideline for the...
National Updates – September 2023
CDC Releases Guidance on Nonopioid Therapies for Pain Management In order to aid clinicians and health systems working to implement their 2022 CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain, the CDC has published an informational webpage about...
National Updates – May 2023
Bill to Allow Licensed Acupuncturists to be Medicare Providers Introduced in House On May 9, Reps. Judy Chu (CA-28) and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01) introduced the Acupuncture for Our Seniors Act of 2023. The Acupuncture for Our Seniors Act would increase access to...
National Updates – April 2023
X-Waiver No Longer Needed but DEA Implements New Education Requirements The x-waiver requirement, which restricted who may treat patients with buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, will be officially rescinded effective June 21, 2023. The Consolidated Appropriations...
New CDC Report Reveals Chronic Pain Affects More Than 1 in 5
After a similar report in 2016, the CDC has released new study data about the prevalence of chronic pain in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on April 23, 2023. Chronic pain continues to affect more than one in five U.S. adults. This report included more...
National Updates – March 2023
New ASRA Guidelines Address Anesthesiology, Chronic Pain, and Screening for Cannabis Before Surgery The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) released new guidelines in early 2023 on the management of perioperative patients on cannabis and...
Fostering Connections During NIH HEAL Investigator Meeting
On February 21st and 22nd, the NIH HEAL Initiative brought together HEAL funded researchers, federal officials, people with lived experience, and other stakeholders to share research findings, explore trends and shared interests, and identify opportunities to advance...
National Updates – February 2023
NCCIH Releases Summary of the Stakeholder Meeting for Research on Whole Person HealthAs a follow-up to their October meeting, NCCIH has released a meeting summary of their Stakeholder Meeting for Research on Whole Person Health. The meeting, which was attended by...
National Updates – January 2023
Medicare Releases Guide for Patients on Safer Use of Opioid Pain MedicationThe Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have released Safer Use of Opioid Pain Medication, a guide for Medicare patients. The guide outlines medication safety checks at the...
National Updates – December 2022
Congress Expands Access to Non-Opioid Pain Management by Passing the NOPAIN Act The NOPAIN Act has been passed by Congress in a direct push to address outdated federal reimbursement policies in an effort to combat the opioid crisis through increased utilization of...
CDC Expands Opioid Guidance to Include Acute Pain and Additional Providers
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released its Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain (2022). Updated and revised, this new guidance is intended to replace the CDC’s 2016 opioid guideline. While the previous guideline was...
National Updates – November 2022
CDC Expands Opioid Guidance to Include Acute Pain and Additional Providers The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released its Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain (2022). Updated and revised, this new guidance is intended to...
CMS Creates New Pain Management Codes Heeding Advice of AACIPM
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its finalized 2023 Physician Fee Schedule, creating, for the first time, billing codes at the federal level that are specific to the delivery of chronic pain management (CPM) services. These codes...
CMS and CDC releases guidance | AACIPM requests your feedback
We would love to hear your feedback after this busy week! Many of you have been engaged in AACIPM's efforts to craft comments to recent requests from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In the past week or so,...
AACIPM Participated in the NCCIH Stakeholder Meeting for Research on Whole Person Health
As a first step in furthering research on whole person health, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) along with a number of others, held a workshop on Methodological Approaches for Whole Person Research in September 2021. This workshop...
National Updates – October 2022
AACIPM Participated in the NCCIH Stakeholder Meeting for Research on Whole Person Health As a first step in furthering research on whole person health, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) along with a number of others, held a workshop...
AACIPM Issues Recommendations on Comprehensive Pain Management Under Medicare
On September 6, 2022, AACIPM submitted a set of eight recommendations related to comprehensive pain management services to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) related to the proposed 2023 Physician Fee Schedule. Issued in response to CMS’ newly...
National Updates – August 2022
AHRQ Seeks Public Comment on Cervical Degenerative Disease Treatment The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is seeking public comment related to treatments for cervical degenerative disease. The agency is seeking answers to a long list of key and contextual...
Sign up to receive our updates