Physicians lead the way on solutions that work

Physicians today are providing the leadership to help end the nation’s opioid-related overdose and death epidemic. As medical professionals, we go where the evidence leads us.

And here are some of the things we’ve found.

Patients in pain deserve our compassion and care. But our patients tell us that they often cannot afford nonopioid alternatives or access other approaches because insurance companies won’t cover these medications or treatments. Public policy and health insurance should support comprehensive, multidisciplinary approaches to pain management.

We also know that medication-assisted treatment, using drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine, are proven treatments for opioid use disorder. More than 14,000 physicians have become trained to provide MAT in the past two years, so we need to do all we can to ensure that patients’ insurance networks include these physicians.

We must make MAT, as well as the counseling and other support services that patients need for long-term recovery, more available and remove the stigma that is often attached to this treatment.

Recognizing the need to enhance their education, more than 118,550 physicians accessed, attended or completed continuing medical education and other courses offered by the American Medical Association, and state and specialty societies on opioid prescribing, pain management, addiction and related areas in 2015 and 2016.

Physicians also have been making more judicious prescribing decisions — and prescriptions for opioids are declining. Unfortunately, this has not resulted in fewer fatalities, as the epidemic is now being driven by heroin and illicit fentanyl.

As physicians, we are on the front lines. We accept and embrace our professional responsibility to treat our patients’ pain and advocate for solutions that work. We are doing precisely that.