Comment Letter on CDC Opioid Guidelines

The Alliance for Aging Research wrote a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) requesting modifications to the 2016 CDC Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. Specifically, the Alliance recommended the CDC modify the guidelines by:

• Including a statement calling for further investment of federal resources into clinical research to assist providers in tailoring long-term opioid use.
• Requiring Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide an updated clinical evidence review of the guidelines
• Calling on public and private payers to broadly cover the cost of non-pharmacologic interventions for pain sufferers.
• Adding more resources to www.cdc.gov on the safe use of non-opioid pain treatment
• Removing the non-evidenced based dosage recommendations
• Removing the time/specific pill limit for acute pain treatment