John Prunskis, MD, is the medical director of the Elgin-based Illinois Pain Institute and a HHS Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force appointee. He urges the U.S. Senate to pass a bipartisan bill to address the opioid crisis in the Daily Herald.
Here are three notes:
1. Dr. Prunskis approved of the introduction of HR 5804, the Post-Surgical Injections as an Opioid Alternative Act, and is pleased the bill was included in HR 6, the bipartisan SUPPORT Act.
2. This bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on a bipartisan vote of 396-14, is now before the Senate.
3. According to Dr. Prunskis, the bill will help reduce uncontrolled access to opioids across the U.S.
"While this is a broad problem without a single magic solution, one of the best things we can do is to diagnose and help fix the source of pain, not mask it with narcotics," wrote Dr. Prunskis. "This legislation would make it easier for [physicians] to perform pain management therapies instead of providing opioid-based prescription drugs that just mask the pain and do not fix the problem. Rather than forcing patients who may have had surgery to manage their own regimen of these potentially addictive substances, precise injections allow doctors to treat the source of the pain and the underlying symptoms in a safe and controlled environment."
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