|
National Pain Care
Policy Act of 2009
A SPECIAL ACTION
REQUEST
Don’t
delay call your Senator today! Urge them to
co-sponsor the National Pain Care Policy Act! This is an
opportune time, while they are in their home state!
See the talking
points and CALL NOW!
Dear APF members,
You previously received an announcement that the House
has passed the National Pain Care Policy Act of 2009, H.R.
756! Your hard work and dedication towards the improvement of
pain care is appreciated and American Pain Foundation (APF) thanks
you. However, while we celebrate the passage of H.R. 756, we
still have much more work to do in the Senate.
If you haven’t responded to the ‘Take Action Now
Request’ to submit a letter to your Senator urging their
co-sponsorship of the Senate bill, S. 660, PLEASE TAKE
ACTION NOW! It will just take a minute of your
time. We need your Senators to co-sponsor S.
660! Your Senator’s co-sponsorship will help to pass S.
660 through the HELP Committee and onto a full vote with greater
support.
NEW
ACTION REQUEST
CALL your Senator while they are in their home
state! You can help get this bill passed! Your
Senators will work from their state offices from April 6th to
17th. APF is asking that you call your Senators while they are
at their state offices and encourage them to co-sponsor S.
660. Now is the time to talk with them about the fact that
millions of people are suffering from pain because of a lack of
proper pain management and S. 660 is designed to address the
tremendous barriers to access to pain care and improve pain
management. If you are not sure how to get your Senator’s contact
information, click
here and type in your zip code to retrieve your Senators’
contact information.
Please see the Bill
Summary for S. 660 and the National Pain Care Policy Act talking
points in tackling
barriers to pain management. These documents are excellent
tools to help shape your conversations with your Senators. Remember
short and to the point is most effective!
If you live in Wyoming, New Hampshire,
Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Utah, Alaska, Oklahoma,
and Kansas; your states have very influential Senators that are
members of the HELP Committee. The HELP Committee is
the first step towards moving the bill through the Senate. It is
critical that S. 660 wins the support of Senators that are members
of the HELP Committee, as well as to gain bipartisan support.
We recognize that some of you have experience
contacting legislators and others of you are new to this work and
may need some additional guidance. Please review the links below, as
they provide valuable advice for communicating with your
Senator:
-
The Legislative
Advocacy section of the APF Action Manual provides useful tips
to prepare for and guide your conversations with your Senators.
-
-
We know that this is a busy time for everyone and we
appreciate all of your efforts.
We will get this bill passed into law in
2009! APF would like to know the highlights of your calls,
please email us at advocacy@painfoundation.org.
A
United Voice of Hope and Power Over
Pain!
|
| Senate bill - Action needed NOW! |
(see SENATE BILL)
First: Please ask your friends in other states and national organizations to support this bill and call for action on it before the close of this session of Congress! This is must be done immediately!!! Call them NOW!
Second: Please let your senators know that you thank them for sponsoring this bill.
Immediate Attention: Senate Bill (S.3656) – Action needed NOW!
Sens. Harkin, Wyden, Feinstein and Boxer are cosponsors.
The PATH Act would:
· Put a 6 month delay on the Medicare Hospital Capital IME policy that is set to go into effect on Oct. 1.
· Put a 6 month delay on the Medicaid Outpatient Clinic Rule.
· Put a 6 month delay on the Medicare Hospice Rule set to go into effect on Oct.
1. Senators Harkin and Specter have
a stand-alone bill on this with 29 cosponsors.
· Delay a policy that affects California family planning services
· Delay implementation of rural health clinic and community health center rule.
· Require states to use coding procedures to eliminate fraud and abuse.
· Medicaid Improvement Fund technical correction
|
| Millions Are Waiting For Their Medicine! |
STOPPING HIV IN IT'S TRACKS!!
Outside of Africa, nearly one in three HIV cases is the result of contaminated needles and syringes. Injection drug use drives the HIV epidemic in Russia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Ukraine, Vietnam, and dozens of other countries.
Methadone and buprenorphine, also known as medication-assisted treatment, are the best researched and most effective treatments for opiate dependence. By eliminating withdrawal and reducing cravings, methadone and buprenorphine allow opiate users to reduce or stop injection, which helps prevent HIV. Because they help people stabilize their lives, they also promote adherence to AIDS treatment medications. Methadone and buprenorphine are on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.
So why are these lifesaving medications available to less than 10% of people who need them?
Let the World Health Organization and the United Nations know that you are concerned about the abuses committed all over the world in the name of drug treatment.
TAKE ACTION and SIGN THE PETITION!
|
| Petition to the Government of Iran |
Physicians for Human Rights is urging the Iranian government to end the incommunicado detention of Drs. Arash Alaei and Kamiar Alaei, two Iranian physicians who have reportedly been detained in Iran by Iranian authorities. The physicians, who are brothers, were apparently arrested at the end of June, 2008 and their current whereabouts are unknown. The doctors are experts on HIV/AIDS and have worked for many years on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment activities in Iran and internationally. PHR calls on the government of Iran to disclose their whereabouts, provide them access to lawyers and family, and either to charge them with an internationally recognized crime or release them immediately.
Physicians for Human Rights is urging the Iranian government to end the incommunicado detention of Drs. Arash Alaei and Kamiar Alaei, two Iranian physicians who have reportedly been detained in Iran by Iranian authorities. The physicians, who are brothers, were apparently arrested at the end of June, 2008 and their current whereabouts are unknown. The doctors are experts on HIV/AIDS and have worked for many years on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment activities in Iran and internationally. PHR calls on the government of Iran to disclose their whereabouts, provide them access to lawyers and family, and either to charge them with an internationally recognized crime or release them immediately.
Dr. Kamiar Alaei is a doctoral candidate at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health and is expected to resume his studies there this fall. In 2007, he received Master of Science in Population and International Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.
His brother Arash is the former Director of the International Education and Research Cooperation of the Iranian National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.
Since 1998, Dr. Arash Alaei and his brother, Kamiar Alaei, have been carrying out programs dealing with HIV/AIDS, particularly focused on harm reduction for injecting drug users in the war-torn province of Kermanshah, on the West Coast of Iran.
Since 1986, the Alaei brothers have sought the integration of prevention and care of HIV/AIDS, sexually-transmitted infections, and drug-related harm reduction, into Iran's national health care system.
In addition to their work in Iran, the Alaei brothers have held training courses for Afghan and Tajik medical workers and have worked to encourage regional cooperation among 12 Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries. They were key organizers of a tri-national meeting in 2004 in Tehran to discuss harm reduction and substitution treatment in Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. At that meeting, Iran's programs proved to be inspiring role models for the region, according to medical experts who participated in the meeting. The Drs. Alaei's work has addressed the most disadvantaged populations and patients in the country.
You may access the petition at http://72.52.218.54/~iranfree/. Please sign it and distribute it broadly.
The following announcement was sent by the Canadian Harm Reduction Network.
Please visit their website, check it out and support them by becoming a member.
|
One of our more immediate concerns is the state of Indiana. The Indiana Legislature is proposing laws/regulations that will make it near impossible for some people to be in treatment! The committee on public health has already voted 11-0 unanimously on Indiana Senate Bill #157. Some of the more frightening proposed language in that bill are as you see below.....
Here is a link to the bill itself Indiana Senate Bill #157
Take note starting #13 on the 2nd page.....
[EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2008]: Sec. 2.5. (a) An opioid treatment
program must periodically and randomly test a patient for the
following during the patient's treatment by the program:
(1) Methadone.
(2) Cocaine.
(3) Opiates.
(4) Amphetamines.
(5) Barbiturates.
(6) Tetrahydrocannabinol.
(7) Benzodiazepines.
(8) Any other drug that has been determined to be abused in
the program's locality or any other drug that may have been
abused by the patient.
(b) If a patient tests positive under a test described in subsection
(a) for:
(1) a controlled substance other than a drug for which the
patient has a prescription or that is part of the patient's
treatment plan at the opioid treatment program; or
(2) an illegal drug other than the drug that is part of the
patient's treatment plan at the opioid treatment program;
the opioid treatment program must administer an administrative
medical detoxification program not to exceed fourteen (14) days.".
(yes...you read that right! That means that ANYONE who tests positive for ANY of those substances...even ONE time will be given a medical taper over a TWO WEEK PERIOD! We all know that people just starting on treatment sometimes take awhile to begin their recovery, I know that *I* did! So we can almost forget new patients if this passes!)
The next point of concern starts at #38....
"(E) A statement to be used by opioid treatment facilities that:
(i) acknowledges that the patient will be driven from the
facility by another responsible person after receiving
opioid treatment medications; and
(ii) is signed by the patient and person who will drive the
patient at the time the patient arrives to receive opioid
treatment medications.".
*You did read that correctly! You may not WALK to the clinic...you may not take a bus to your clinic. You MUST have a designated driver! They are comparing a person on MMT to a person that has just had surgery and been put under general anesthesia, sigh.
Let me repeat myself here, my friends. IF you do not live in Indiana, do NOT get too comfortable because YOUR state could be next! Below please find some links for form letters etc. that you can send to your lawmakers AND help out those in Indiana! All of the addresses for the lawmakers in IN are also below. WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!!
Driving Article Abstracts
Patient Info Sheet on SB #157
List of Reps for different clinic areas of Indiana
Phone Script for Designated Drivers
Who to write
WHEN LEGISLATORS SEEK TO PRACTICE MEDICINE
by Dr. Robert Newman |
A proposed bill (Senate 157) is currently under consideration in Indiana that would severely constrain clinical judgment through legislative fiat. It deals with the use of medicines – methadone and the more recently introduced medication buprenorphine – in the treatment of addiction to heroin, oxycontin and other legal and illegal narcotics.
For many years it has been widely recognized that addiction is a chronic, relapsing medical condition. This view has been expressed consistently by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Institute of Medicine, the World Health Organization, and academic and clinical authorities throughout the world. Unfortunately, addiction – to date – is not curable, just as dependence on alcohol is not curable (just ask an Alcoholics Anonymous advocate when and under what circumstances someone can be pronounced “cured” of alcoholism). Indeed, inability to cure is precisely what defines chronicity, and it is a frustrating reality to providers and patients alike with regard to a long list of diseases, including diabetes, most forms of heart and lung ailments, many neurological conditions, etc.
Incomprehensively, it is only in the case of addiction that the documented reality of “treatable but not curable” is rejected. In all other chronic illness this limitation is accepted as a fact of life, and viewed as both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to continue the search for a better understanding of the cause(s) and, ultimately, the cure for the condition; the opportunity is to seek to provide the very best treatment available to all those who want and need it to lead a healthier, more self-fulfilling, more productive and longer life. In pursuit of all of these vitally important therapeutic goals, no treatment has been proven as effective as “maintenance” with methadone and, more recently, buprenorphine. Today, over one million people in 65 nations receive this form of care.
As just one of the unprecedented demands of the proposed legislation – one which is illustrative of the strongly pejorative view towards providers and patients, and the illness and treatment under consideration, consider what is required with respect to laboratory testing for evidence of drug use. The demands that urine tests be performed “periodically and randomly” on all patients, regardless of length of time in treatment, clinical course or other considerations. It insists that urination be “in an observed manner” – i.e., that the patient be observed by a staff member while urinating into a cup. If urine test results are “positive” for any of a host of substances (a partial list is spelled out in the bill), referral procedures are required, and a “clinical evaluation” made that “…must recommend a remedial action of the patient that may include discharge . . . “ Imagine – a law that imposes on clinicians the obligation to consider terminating treatment for the simple reason that the patient is showing evidence of the disease being treated (in this instance, drug dependence). It should be noted that evidence of use and/or misuse of drugs, whether legal or illegal, would never be cited as grounds for abandoning patients needing treatment for thyroid disease, or asthma, or kidney failure, or HIV-AIDS, or any other disease; nor is it imaginable that a doctor would abandon a patient with such diseases if they showed poor response to the medication prescribed, or exacerbation of the condition (either as a result of natural progression or, perhaps, due to failure to comply with the prescribed regimen of diet, exercise, smoking cessation or whatever). It is simply unconscionable to obligate, by law, doctors to consider that which would be unthinkable – and unethical – in all other areas of medicine!
There are other aspects of this proposed legislation that are also without parallel in the practice of medicine in America. Thus, “The Division [of Mental Health and Addiction] shall adopt rule … [that] must include provisions relating to … regular clinic attendance by the patient; specific counseling requirements; stable home environment of the patient . . .” Also required is mandatory reporting to the State of patient information, including length of time in treatment, number of patients whose treatment has ended during a given time period, the cost of the treatment, etc. Another provision for which there is neither logical support nor precedent is that “the division” must approve in advance “take-home” medication for any individual patient for more than14 days (Federal regulations for many years have approved up to 30 days of “take-home” medication for patients the provider believes are responding well to treatment).
Finally, the cost of the entire cumbersome, intrusive, unparalleled bureaucracy that would be established to carry out the provisions of this bill will have to be paid for by the “programs” providing the care – which is to say, by insurers or, in most cases, by the patients. With fees already in the neighborhood of $5,000 per year, and further increases inevitable as a result of the new “minimum staff requirements” the bill calls on the division to promulgate, a great many patients will simply have to leave treatment.
Who benefits from this bill? Nobody! Certainly neither the providers or patients; both groups will have strong incentive to discontinue involvement with treatment of drug dependence. And what will happen to those drug dependent individuals who drop out of treatment, and all those who in the future will refuse to consider even applying? The answer is unequivocal: they will resume or continue their illicit narcotic use, resulting in further destroyed – and lost! – lives. The ultimate losers, though, will be members of the general community – the citizens whose interests the legislators represent. It is society at large that will suffer the consequences of continued rising crime, spread of illness (including HIV-AIDS), the staggering costs of the criminal justice system and the health care required when patients present with acute problems such as overdose and abscesses, and chronic conditions such as AIDS and hepatitis.
Senate bill 157 should be scrapped immediately, and the attention of the Legislature should be directed to determining how most expeditiously and effectively to enable every single person to have prompt access to care that they need and want, and without which many will die.
Robert G. Newman, MD
Director
International Center for Advancement
of Addiction Treatment,Baron Edmond
de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute
of Beth Israel Medical Center
|
PENNSYLVANIA - Calling all patients, advocates and anyone that would like to help! They are talking about designated drivers here as well. Go to this link and read the article, Blair County Residents Hope To Delay Methadone Clinics' Opening
20th District State Sen. John Eichelberger said....
"Two things need to be done that appear to be the methodology for dealing with this issue. One is to restrict the amount of patients that are seen each day so they can (have) closer monitoring. And secondly .... the law needs to require designated drivers,"
Me thinks that Senator Eichelberger needs a course in Methadone 101...AND FAST! This will be happening in YOUR state next if we do not take action NOW.
Aaaand last, but certainly not least...STARTING in Indiana and Florida...and probably coming to your state soon, we have yet more of those vile billboards telling how "Methadone Kills"!
 
 
You might remember around May of 2007...a similar billboard was put up in Indiana....by a community mental health agency. Rather then tell you about it....here's the actual article from our homepage....
05/17/07 - CONTROVERSIAL BILLBOARD BEING CHANGED!!
Recent overdose deaths involving Methadone had prompted Kosciusko County officials in Indiana to erect a graphic billboard warning residents of the potentially fatal consequences of abusing the drug.
We of the methadone community have been a little more than upset since we were made aware of this billboard. Methadone SAVES lives for the majority of those that use it correctly and we felt the poster was very misleading. That said....the methadone billboard WILL be changed starting Thursday or Friday of next week!
I spoke this morning to a marketing representative for Bowen Center, a community mental health agency that services Northern Indiana. They specialize in anything to do with mental health...including Chemical Dependency. You can see in the photo above their name and toll free telephone number. The gentleman that I spoke with told me that this particular area of Kosciusko County where the billboard is has had more than a few deaths associated with Methadone. He said the deaths weren't so much from Methadone by itself, but combinations where Methadone was involved. The Indiana Health Department wanted to do something to warn people of the potential dangers. Their intent was good, but it was worded incorrectly. He went on to say that they are NOT "anti methadone" under any circumstances....that they know that Methadone is a wonderful medication for addiction or pain when used CORRECTLY. The verbage on the poster was not meant for "correct users", he said. Due to our "awesome and quick feedback" (his exact words, lol)...they will be correcting the wording to make a "clearer message".
So...on the new poster......in front of "Methadone Kills" it will say, "ABUSE OF"....so it will read, "Abuse of Methadone Kills". Further down...where it now says, "The use of Methadone can lead to respiratory depression, coma and death"...they will add verbage that is more explicit - like..."The Health Department warns that INCORRECT usage and abuse CAN lead to"...and the rest. There will be more billboards over the next 30 days for this campaign, but the new billboards will all reflect the new changes.
I got the impression from talking to this man that this campaign is definitely NOT anti methadone. Their intention was to bring attention to this problem and stop the abuse....and they got a little carried away. They were very forthcoming and had no problem speaking to me at length about everything. The billboard is still more disturbing than I would care to see, but I am happy that they are working to correct it's impact.
Unfortunately, the group behind this billboard will not likely be changing it anytime soon.
Copyright © 2005 CARSHOL
|
