1.Short title; table of
contents
(a)This Act may be cited as the National Pain Care Policy Act of
2009
.
(b)The table of contents of this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Institute of Medicine Conference on Pain.
Sec. 3. Pain research at National Institutes of
Health.
Sec. 4. Pain care education and
training.
Sec. 5. Public awareness campaign on pain
management.
2.Institute of
Medicine Conference on Pain
(a)Not
later than June 30, 2010, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall seek
to enter into an agreement with the Institute of Medicine of the National
Academies to convene a Conference on Pain (in this section referred to as
the Conference
).
(b)The
purposes of the Conference shall be to—
(1)increase the
recognition of pain as a significant public health problem in the United
States;
(2)evaluate the
adequacy of assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and management of acute and
chronic pain in the general population, and in identified racial, ethnic,
gender, age, and other demographic groups that may be disproportionately
affected by inadequacies in the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and
management of pain;
(3)identify barriers
to appropriate pain care, including—
(A)lack of
understanding and education among employers, patients, health care providers,
regulators, and third-party payors;
(B)barriers to access
to care at the primary, specialty, and tertiary care levels, including
barriers—
(i)specific to those
populations that are disproportionately undertreated for pain;
(ii)related to
physician concerns over regulatory and law enforcement policies applicable to
some pain therapies; and
(iii)attributable to
benefit, coverage, and payment policies in both the public and private sectors;
and
(C)gaps in basic and
clinical research on the symptoms and causes of pain, and potential assessment
methods and new treatments to improve pain care; and
(4)establish an
agenda for action in both the public and private sectors that will reduce such
barriers and significantly improve the state of pain care research, education,
and clinical care in the United States.
(c)If the Institute of Medicine declines to enter
into an agreement under subsection (a), the Secretary of Health and Human
Services may enter into such agreement with another appropriate entity.
(d)A
report summarizing the Conference’s findings and recommendations shall be
submitted to the Congress not later than June 30, 2011.
(e)Authorization of
appropriationsFor the purpose of carrying out this section,
there is authorized to be appropriated $500,000 for each of fiscal years 2010
and 2011.
3.Pain research at
National Institutes of HealthPart B of title IV of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 284 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
409J.
(a)
(1)The Director of NIH is encouraged to continue and expand,
through the Pain Consortium, an aggressive program of basic and clinical
research on the causes of and potential treatments for pain.
(2)Not less than annually, the Pain Consortium, in
consultation with the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic
Initiatives, shall develop and submit to the Director of NIH recommendations on
appropriate pain research initiatives that could be undertaken with funds
reserved under section 402A(c)(1) for the Common Fund or otherwise available
for such initiatives.
(3)In
this subsection, the term Pain Consortium
means the Pain
Consortium of the National Institutes of Health or a similar trans-National
Institutes of Health coordinating entity designated by the Secretary for
purposes of this subsection.
(b)Interagency pain
research coordinating committee
(1)The
Secretary shall establish not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment
of this section and as necessary maintain a committee, to be known as the
Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (in this section referred to
as the Committee
), to coordinate all efforts within the
Department of Health and Human Services and other Federal agencies that relate
to pain research.
(2)
(A)The Committee shall be composed of the following voting
members:
(i)Not
more than 7 voting Federal representatives as follows:
(I)The Director of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(II)The Director of
the National Institutes of Health and the directors of such national research
institutes and national centers as the Secretary determines appropriate.
(III)The heads of such
other agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services as the Secretary
determines appropriate.
(IV)Representatives of
other Federal agencies that conduct or support pain care research and
treatment, including the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans
Affairs.
(ii)12 additional
voting members appointed under subparagraph (B).
(B)The Committee shall include additional voting members
appointed by the Secretary as follows:
(i)6
members shall be appointed from among scientists, physicians, and other health
professionals, who—
(I)are not officers
or employees of the United States;
(II)represent
multiple disciplines, including clinical, basic, and public health
sciences;
(III)represent
different geographical regions of the United States; and
(IV)are from practice
settings, academia, manufacturers or other research settings; and
(ii)6
members shall be appointed from members of the general public, who are
representatives of leading research, advocacy, and service organizations for
individuals with pain-related conditions.
(C)The Committee shall include such nonvoting members as the
Secretary determines to be appropriate.
(3)The
voting members of the Committee shall select a chairperson from among such
members. The selection of a chairperson shall be subject to the approval of the
Director of NIH.
(4)The
Committee shall meet at the call of the chairperson of the Committee or upon
the request of the Director of NIH, but in no case less often than once each
year.
(5)The
Committee shall—
(A)develop a summary
of advances in pain care research supported or conducted by the Federal
agencies relevant to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of pain and
diseases and disorders associated with pain;
(B)identify critical
gaps in basic and clinical research on the symptoms and causes of pain;
(C)make
recommendations to ensure that the activities of the National Institutes of
Health and other Federal agencies, including the Department of Defense and the
Department of Veteran Affairs, are free of unnecessary duplication of
effort;
(D)make
recommendations on how best to disseminate information on pain care; and
(E)make
recommendations on how to expand partnerships between public entities,
including Federal agencies, and private entities to expand collaborative,
cross-cutting research.
(6)The
Secretary shall review the necessity of the Committee at least once every 2
years.
.
4.Pain care
education and trainingPart D
of title VII of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 294 et seq.) is
amended by adding at the end the following new section:
759.Program for
education and training in pain care
(a)The Secretary may make awards of grants, cooperative
agreements, and contracts to health professions schools, hospices, and other
public and private entities for the development and implementation of programs
to provide education and training to health care professionals in pain
care.
(b)In
making awards under subsection (a), the Secretary shall give priority to awards
for the implementation of programs under such subsection.
(c)An award may be made under subsection (a) only if the
applicant for the award agrees that the program carried out with the award will
include information and education on—
(1)recognized means
for assessing, diagnosing, treating, and managing pain and related signs and
symptoms, including the medically appropriate use of controlled
substances;
(2)applicable laws,
regulations, rules, and policies on controlled substances, including the degree
to which misconceptions and concerns regarding such laws, regulations, rules,
and policies, or the enforcement thereof, may create barriers to patient access
to appropriate and effective pain care;
(3)interdisciplinary
approaches to the delivery of pain care, including delivery through specialized
centers providing comprehensive pain care treatment expertise;
(4)cultural,
linguistic, literacy, geographic, and other barriers to care in underserved
populations; and
(5)recent findings,
developments, and improvements in the provision of pain care.
(d)Education and training under subsection (a) may be provided
at or through health professions schools, residency training programs, and
other graduate programs in the health professions; entities that provide
continuing education in medicine, pain management, dentistry, psychology,
social work, nursing, and pharmacy; hospices; and such other programs or sites
as the Secretary determines to be appropriate.
(e)The Secretary shall (directly or through grants or
contracts) provide for the evaluation of programs implemented under subsection
(a) in order to determine the effect of such programs on knowledge and practice
of pain care.
(f)In carrying out section 799(f) with respect to this
section, the Secretary shall ensure that the membership of each peer review
group involved includes individuals with expertise and experience in pain
care.
(g)For purposes of this section the term pain
care means the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, or management of acute
or chronic pain regardless of causation or body location.
(h)Authorization of
appropriationsThere is authorized to be appropriated to carry
out this section, $5,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2010 through 2012.
Amounts appropriated under this subsection shall remain available until
expended.
.
5.Public awareness
campaign on pain managementPart B of title II of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 238 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
249.National
education outreach and awareness campaign on pain management
(a)Not
later than June 30, 2010, the Secretary shall establish and implement a
national pain care education outreach and awareness campaign described in
subsection (b).
(b)The
Secretary shall design the public awareness campaign under this section to
educate consumers, patients, their families, and other caregivers with respect
to—
(1)the incidence and
importance of pain as a national public health problem;
(2)the adverse
physical, psychological, emotional, societal, and financial consequences that
can result if pain is not appropriately assessed, diagnosed, treated, or
managed;
(3)the availability,
benefits, and risks of all pain treatment and management options;
(4)having pain
promptly assessed, appropriately diagnosed, treated, and managed, and regularly
reassessed with treatment adjusted as needed;
(5)the role of
credentialed pain management specialists and subspecialists, and of
comprehensive interdisciplinary centers of treatment expertise;
(6)the availability
in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors of pain management-related
information, services, and resources for consumers, employers, third-party
payors, patients, their families, and caregivers, including information
on—
(A)appropriate
assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and management options for all types of pain
and pain-related symptoms; and
(B)conditions for
which no treatment options are yet recognized; and
(7)other issues the
Secretary deems appropriate.
(c)In
designing and implementing the public awareness campaign required by this
section, the Secretary shall consult with organizations representing patients
in pain and other consumers, employers, physicians including physicians
specializing in pain care, other pain management professionals, medical device
manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies.
(d)
(1)The Secretary shall designate one official in the
Department of Health and Human Services to oversee the campaign established
under this section.
(2)The Secretary shall ensure the involvement in the
public awareness campaign under this section of the Surgeon General of the
Public Health Service, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, and such other representatives of offices and agencies of the
Department of Health and Human Services as the Secretary determines
appropriate.
(e)Underserved
areas and populationsIn designing the public awareness campaign
under this section, the Secretary shall—
(1)take into account
the special needs of geographic areas and racial, ethnic, gender, age, and
other demographic groups that are currently underserved; and
(2)provide resources
that will reduce disparities in access to appropriate diagnosis, assessment,
and treatment.
(f)The Secretary may make awards of grants, cooperative
agreements, and contracts to public agencies and private nonprofit
organizations to assist with the development and implementation of the public
awareness campaign under this section.
(g)Not later than the end of fiscal year 2012, the Secretary
shall prepare and submit to the Congress a report evaluating the effectiveness
of the public awareness campaign under this section in educating the general
public with respect to the matters described in subsection (b).
(h)Authorization of
appropriationsFor purposes of carrying out this section, there
are authorized to be appropriated $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2010 and
$4,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2011 and
2012.
.