Legislation to Help Patients with Chronic Pain Passes Senate Committee

March 24, 2022

Legislation intended to protect patients with chronic pain, and ensure health and safety in opioid prescribing passed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee this week. 

The bill addresses unintended consequences of past legislation that aimed to limit the availability and dependence on opioids. SF3566 (Sen. Greg Clausen-DFL, Apple Valley) and its House companion HF3786 (Robert Bierman-DFL, Apple Valley), helps ensure that patients with severe, chronic pain have access to the opioid prescriptions they need. 

Individuals with severe, chronic pain have reported that prescribers have been forced to reduce their use of long-term opioids even when that reduction has not been in the patient's best interest. These instances of forced tapering are the result of how some health plans, pharmacy chains, and others have interpreted CDC guidelines designed to reduce the overuse of opioids.  

David Schultz, MD, of the Minnesota Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, testified in support of the bill, stating that these interpretations are “making it difficult for doctors to prescribe opioids for legitimate chronic pain patients. They do nothing to reduce opioid abuse and diversion, and they cause unnecessary suffering and medical complications in patients who have no other good options.” 

The MMA supports this legislation and sees it as a way to continue combatting the overprescribing of opioids, while making it clear that forced tapering of pain medications is not right for all patients. The bill would help ensure the practice of patient-centered care and maintain that providers who prescribe medically necessary opioid analgesics to treat intractable pain patients are protected. Specifically, the bill ensures that a prescriber and a patient enter into a mutually agreed upon treatment plan before receiving any of the protections outlined in the legislation. This patient-provider agreement must address the prescriber’s and the patient’s expectations, responsibilities, and rights prior to prescribing opioids, and actions to be taken should either party deviate from the agreement. 

In a letter supporting the legislation, the MMA stated that it is “committed to ensuring 1) effective, evidence-based prescribing and treatment; 2) appropriate access to opioid therapy for patients with active cancer and patients receiving palliative or hospice care; and 3) ensuring that tapering opioid therapy is conducted in a manner that considers the risks and benefits to the patient.” 

The legislation has received strong bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate.