Improving Access to Care for Chronic Intractable Care

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 26, 2022

Media Contact: Barby Ingle, barby@internationalpain.org, 480-760-1197

Gold Canyon, AZ – Senator Nancy Barto introduced SB1162, to the Senate Health Committee. This bill is a measure that would enact protections for chronic intractable pain patients in Arizona. This amendment to ARS Section 32-3248.01 will improve access to care, give physicians the ability to treat their patients as medically appropriate, and give confirm that providers and their state governing boards have oversight on appropriate treatment for these patients. Pain patients and providers testified for 2.5 hours on the importance of this bill passing. With a unanimous vote of 8-0, it passed from the Senate Health Committee to the full Senate and will go the House Health Committee for vote in the coming weeks.

The Arizona Amendment to Section 32-3248.01, Arizona Revised Statutes; Relating to Controlled Substances defines chronic intractable pain and gives providers and patients with this health challenge an exemption from ARS Section 32-3248.01 medication prescribing laws that came about after the 2016 CDC guidelines were released. Medical providers, pain patients and caregivers have come together to support this needed legislation knowing its success will help give proper authority to medical providers and patients to assist in giving appropriate and timely care to patients who are in need of appropriate pain care outside of the average patient range with it comes to care with pain medication treatment options. We believe that this act will help patients in need achieve proper care, treatment, and lower the number of suicides in the chronic intractable pain community due to lack of appropriate care that the original law prohibited for each of them.

The program is particularly important for chronic intractable pain patients and all medical providers in the state of Arizona.

Dr. Jeff Singer, a Phoenix surgeon and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, said, "Just as it is unwise and dangerous to set in stone with legal statute the proper dose and amount of insulin to treat diabetes or beta-blockers to treat high blood pressure, it is equally wrong to legislate the treatment of pain. If there is, anything these past 2 years of the pandemic should have taught us it is that science is a work in progress, with what we know subject to continuous revision, and people are individuals - there is no one-size-fits-all solution to most health problems. Doctors' opinions may vary on how to treat particular medical issues. Their professional differences should not be a concern of law enforcement."
“For far too long people with painful illnesses & conditions have been suffering due to poorly executed policies to address drug misuse. This legislation is the 1st step to help correct course and ensure the health and safety for all citizens to receive the individualized care they need without undue barriers and/or discrimination.”, said Lauren Deluca, Executive Director & Founding President, Chronic Illness Advocacy & Awareness Group, Inc.

In Arizona, we must deliver on the promise of helping the chronic intractable pain community and addition community at the same time. Accessing proper healthcare should be individualized and made easier, because when proper and timely care is not given we see a greater burden on taxpayers, individuals, and the State of Arizona. The Arizona Amendment to Section 32-3248.01, Arizona Revised Statutes; Relating to Controlled Substances will help define our rights and improve access to life sustaining medications for all Arizonans in need and ensure that our state’s government truly represents the people of Arizona so that we may all participate in society more fully.

Many organizations, practicing physicians, pain patients, and caregivers have come together to strongly urges the state legislature to pass The Arizona Amendment to Section 32-3248.01, Arizona Revised Statutes; Relating to Controlled Substances and stand with the people of Arizona.

“This bill represents the promise of American democracy, a democracy that is of, by, and for the people,” said Barby Ingle, President of International Pain Foundation and AZ pain patient. “Pain patients depend on access to proper treatment options and the revisions to Arizona Amendment to Section 32-3248.01, Arizona Revised Statutes; Relating to Controlled Substances will be a tool to help patient get the access they need, strengthen the pain community and our medical providers, and give our families and our communities a tool we need.”