CPTAF calls for funding of HHS' National Pain Strategy

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Pain Advocacy Task Force — a new coalition of seventeen consumer organizations and advocacy groups created specifically to promote, support and monitor the implementation of the Department of Health and Human Services' National Pain Strategy — recently called for HHS to proactively develop a federal oversight body for its NPS and start the budgeting process now, so that HHS can implement the plan soon after it is approved and released.

 

“Developed by six federal health agencies and 80 well-respected experts from the medical-scientific, public, private, federal, patient and advocacy communities, the NPS represents hope for the millions of Americans and their loved ones affected by devastating chronic pain,” said Amy Goldstein, director of the State Pain Policy Advocacy Network for the American Academy of Pain Management. “Now, we must ensure that adequate funding is allocated for this effort and that the NPS is implemented in a coordinated and efficient manner to enact long-overdue change in the lives of people who are suffering gravely. The CPATF applauds HHS for its leadership on this issue, and stands ready to do its part to support the department and federal agencies in the implementation process.”

 

The National Pain Strategy is a comprehensive, population-level strategic plan to advance pain research, education, care and prevention, and was developed in response to the need to transform how pain is perceived, assessed and treated in America. 

 

The NPS process began after the 2011 Institute of Medicine report "Relieving Pain in America," which determined that more than 100 million American adults live with life-altering chronic pain, at an annual economic cost burden of $600 billion. 

 

CPATF Members include: American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network; American Chronic Pain Association; C-Change; Chronic Pain Research Alliance; Global Health Living Foundation; Interstitial Cystitis Association; National Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain Association; National Patient Advocate Foundation; Pain Connection; PAINS; Power of Pain Foundation; Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association; State Pain Policy Advocacy Network; The Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy; The Pain Community; The TMJ Association; and US Pain Foundation.