Non-Opiate Alternative Treatment Coalition Lobby Day
4.12.2018
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All hands on deck
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RIAPTA has several Advocacy issues right now. The support of our members is critical for advancing our profession at this level.
Please help represent Physical Therapy as a Non-Opiate Alternative Treatment at the April 12 Lobby Day organized by the Attorney General.
We are in support of the following Bills: H7499 (Rep. Morin) and S2537 (Chair Picard). These bills mandate insurance coverage for non-opioid pain treatment (physical therapy, occupational therapy, massage therapy, acupuncture and oriental medicine, naturopathic medicine, and auricular acudetox)
Please see more info below along with committee members and current support of the bills.
Consider joining us on April 12 at 3:00pm at the RI State House.
Physical therapy will have a table along side other professionals who provide Non-Opiate alternatives to pain management. We are asking for PT/ PTA volunteers to represent at this table and to speak with their legislators.
Details:
Thursday April 12
2:30 – 4:30pm
State House – second floor surrounding the rotunda
Please sign up using this link below:
Thank you for helping promote our profession.
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More info on the bill and links:
SUPPORT
H7499 (Rep. Morin) and S2537 (Chair Picard)
Mandates insurance coverage for non-opioid pain treatment (physical therapy, occupational therapy, massage therapy, acupuncture and oriental medicine, naturopathic medicine, and auricular acudetox)
In 2016, there were around 42,000 opioid overdose deaths in the United States. Forty percent (40%) of those overdose deaths involved a prescription opioid.
Non-opioid pain treatment alternatives need to be deployed to prevent further individuals from becoming addicted. For that to work, patients must have affordable access to these therapies, meaning they must be covered by insurance.
This is an issue of fairness. Rhode Islanders of all financial means deserve access to non-opioid pain treatment alternatives. A study from Washington State found that patients with using non-opioid treatment alternatives had lower insurance costs than those patients not using such treatment.
A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that opioids were not more effective than over the counter drugs in certain chronic conditions.
In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control issued guidelines on chronic pain that recommended that “nonpharmacologic therapy and nonopioid pharmacologic therapy are preferred for chronic pain.”
The American College of Physicians recommends that nonpharmacologic treatment should be used as first-line therapy for acute or subacute back pain.
Further, beginning on January 1, 2018, the Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies health care organizations, requires that hospitals provide nonpharmacologic pain treatment; this includes Rhode Island hospitals.
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