Progress In Achieving Balance In Pain Management Policy In The US

"Alabama and Idaho now join Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin as having the most balanced policies in the country related to pain management, including with the appropriate use of pain medications for legitimate medical purposes. Over time, these 15 states took advantage of available policy templates and resources, and repealed all excessively restrictive and ambiguous policy. This achievement does not mean that their work is finished, because policy needs to be properly implemented (see next section). Importantly, there is no ceiling on policy quality, so states with high grades should continue to explore how additional policy can help to improve access to pain management while avoiding the adoption of restrictive requirements or limitations. In fact, 25 states that achieved an A for positive language in the past have continued to adopt policy language promoting appropriate pain management during this evaluation timeframe.^h"