By Millions of people suffer from chronic pain. It’s a condition that costs the country a lot of money each year. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that chronic pain costs the country around $560 billion per year in direct medical costs, lost productivity, and disability programs (1). Many people who have chronic pain do not adhere to the pain management programs that have been prescribed and suggested to them.
April 2019 issue of the journal Pain Medicine
Researchers set out to see if not adhering to the pain management programs led to higher overall costs associated with chronic pain. Researchers used a large number of claims on newly diagnosed patients in order to gather the information they needed to evaluate. The study includes:
- 441,465 patients who had osteoarthritis
- 76,361 patients with gout
- 10,645 patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy
- 4,010 with postherpetic neuralgia
- 150,321 patients with fibromyalgia
They split the patients into three groups: adherent to pain management treatment, non-adherent, and unsure. They then proceeded to evaluate and compare the adherent and non-adherent groups. Their findings should be enough to make anyone involved in pain management take notice. The economic cost impacts both the patients and the health care industry as a whole.
The study found that adherent patients had significantly fewer emergency room visits, and a lower proportion of hospitalizations. Plus, while they report that the mean health care costs increased for patients once they were diagnosed with the conditions, those who were adherent to their pain management programs had a significantly lower health care cost increase. The researchers concluded that adhering to pain management guidelines is associated with significantly lower health care usage and costs.
It is important for those with chronic pain to consider this information. Whether or not you adhere to your pain management guidelines has a significant impact on how frequently you will need to see the doctor, go to the emergency room, or be hospitalized. It also has a significant impact on health care costs. Even those who have insurance may find that this impacts their premiums, as well as how much they spend out of pocket on deductibles and office visit co-pays. Those who want to save money and time, and experience less pain, will find that they will have a better chance at doing this if they adhere to their pain management guidelines.
Sources:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prevalence of chronic pain and high-impact chronic pain among adults. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6736a2.htm
- Pain Medicine. Economic Impact of Adherence to Pain Treatment Guidelines in Chronic Pain Patients. April 2019. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31034040
