New members of Congress and new majority in the House – time to meet & talk ?

The F.D.A. declined to issue a ban on Depo-Medrol, like Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, New Zealand and Switzerland

Above blog post addresses how the FDA declined to ban Depo-Medrol being used is ESI procedures unlike many other countries have done.

Now that the Democrats have taken over control of the House, is it time to start planning on talking with them – face to face – about what they proposed on doing that will/should have a positive impact on the chronic pain community ?

Each member of Congress in back in their district multiple times a year and often have one or more days set aside to meet with constituents. Many will make an appointment for a 15 minutes one to one… face to face meeting.

Here are a few things that they have been backing:

# “Medicare for all”… does this suggest that all disease/health issues should receive appropriate care (standard of care & best practices)  ?

# coverage of preexisting health issues .. does this mean that the number of medication on a formularies should not be cut down year after year

# Fraud and abuse of Medicare/Medicaid… does this mean that products and services should not provided/paid for when there is a lack of medical necessity or when the service/procedure is discouraged by the FDA and/or medication manufacturer . There is an estimated 10 million ESI’s each year (estimate cost $ 10 -30 Billion) and it is estimated that 5% will end up with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnoiditis     reportedly a very painful disease and irreversible disease caused by a medical error and/or procedural mistake.  Annual cost to treat unknown.

Prohibit prescribers from mandating a pt to received a ESI procedure in order to receive oral opiates… this is an inducement/incentive to cause Medicare/Medicaid to expend dollars . DEA is charging prescribers with Medicare/Medicaid fraud when the prescriber is being charged with prescribing opiates/controlled substances without valid medical necessity.

When meeting with a member of Congress… create a packet of information… first page should be just “bullet points” on a two or three issues and other parts of the packet should be more detailed information related to the bullet points on the first page.  Take several copies of all material with you.

Session is now GONE… three more states have legalized Marijuana… Congress is spending nearly ONE TRILLION/yr than we take in.  New Congressional session starts in Jan

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