There are other ways to manage chronic pain, but insurance companies won't pay for them.
In an unprecedented move, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy sent a letter to every doctor in America last month. It did not congratulate us on a job well done; instead, it said we need an urgent change in how we manage pain and opioids. The gesture, launching the TurnTheTideRx campaign, was praiseworthy but unfortunately misses point.
I have watched the swing of the pain pendulum for several decades, including the last three years as president of the largest multidisciplinary pain management organization in the U.S. Over this time I have seen opioids rise from being important medicines used judiciously, to being among the most widely prescribed class of pain medications. I have seen doctors and drug companies blamed for the epidemic, the FDA slap drug companies for improper claims and insurance companies who bought the line provide coverage that fueled a 300% increase in prescriptions since 1999 (with similar skyrocketing of pain procedures and surgeries).
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