U.S. Supreme Court Has an Important Issue Before It — and There’s a Lot at Stake for Pain Management Specialists, Physicians Prescribing Pain Medicine
https://www.chapmanlawgroup.com/scotus-supreme-court-pain-medicine-naum/
The High Court Could Decide a Groundbreaking Issue in Pain Management: How the Standard of Care Should Apply to Criminal Charges That Involve Prescriptions. Now’s Your Chance to Help
In the fight for ethical pain management, the federal courts have had difficulty interpreting and applying the medical standard of care when it comes to physicians’ prescription-related criminal matters. Now, the nation’s highest court has the chance to correct this. And if you are a pain management specialist or you have a vested interest in how prescription-related criminal cases are decided, this is your chance to weigh in.
Before the Supreme Court of the United States is an argument that pain management clinics, specialty physicians, and other healthcare providers involved in pain medicine have waited all too long to be decided. With your amicus support, we can educate the justices on why this is important for the practice of medicine and the prevention of a suffering patient population.
The Feds Continue to Use a Troublesome Standard of Care to Criminalize Pain Management Physicians, Wrongfully Pushing Them Into Role of Drug Pusher
For most of the 21st century, the federal government’s methods for criminalizing malpractice have put physicians, particularly those who specialize in pain management, in a troublesome, often career-ending place.
Why? Because the feds have changed the phrase “the bounds of professional practice” — and, similarly, “legitimate medical purpose” and “course of professional practice” — to mean a departure from nationally recognized standards and fully into the drug trafficking arena. As a result, physicians who simply want to ease their patients’ long-lasting pain symptoms are paying the price criminally and professionally.
Traditionally, drug trafficking charges are only levied against physicians who cease acting as a physician (i.e., acts “outside the bounds of medical practice”), and instead engage in unlawful drug transactions (i.e., drug pushing or diversion). Yet, over the last 10-plus years, the federal government has criminalized violations of nationally recognized standards of care — standards that physicians already disagree on when it comes to pain management. Because the fields of pain management and addiction medicine are rapidly evolving, the standards constantly shift with them.
As CDC Guidelines Make the Standard of Care Harder to Follow, the Federal Courts Are Throwing Their Hands Up — and Pain Patients Are Left Suffering
Making matters much worse has been the release of the Centers for Disease Control Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. These went from being suggested guidelines to full-blown standards adopted into state and federal administrative codes. As a result, the standard of care has become heightened, more complex, and difficult to follow — to the point where several federal circuits are unable, or have refused, to interpret the applicable standard when it comes to criminal liability.
Is the standard objective or subjective? Disjunctive or conjunctive? Are the meanings “legitimate medical purpose” and “usual course of professional practice” one and the same? These are questions with which the courts have been wrestling, often coming up with vague, if any, answers.
As this is happening, the practice of medicine is left hanging in the balance. From pain management specialists to addiction medicine practitioners, and even general family doctors, physicians remain fearful of prescribing out of liability concerns. Meanwhile, their patients are turning to illicit drugs to ease their pain, further fueling the true cause of the opioid epidemic.
For Future of Pain Medicine and How Pain Management Specialists Can Best Help Patients, It’s Critical You Let Your Voice Be Heard Before the High Court
If your practice or organization feels threatened by this shift, you now have the chance for your voice to be heard before the nation’s highest court.
The Supreme Court of the United States is considering Naum v. United States, a case that calls for putting a definitive standard in place for prescribing controlled substances in the U.S. This would address the vagueness of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and 21 C.F.R. § 1306.04 and eliminate any ambiguity when federal circuits are asked to consider whether a pain management specialist (or any other practitioner) ceased to act as a physician and instead served as a drug dealer.
The argument is authored by Ronald W. Chapman II, who represents the defendant in Naum. As chairperson of the White Collar Defense & Government Investigations practice at Chapman Law Group, Chapman has faced this legal argument in several federal circuits. In Naum, the U.S. Supreme Court has a case that is representative of why a definitive standard must be put in place.
We are calling on you to show your support of this crucial legal issue, by way of an Amicus Brief. This is an issue that affects you and your constituents directly, and it will clarify how the criminal law procedure applies to the practice of not just pain medicine, but overall medical practice.
You may find the brief for Naum v. United States here. We appreciate your consideration in helping the high court understand how much is at stake for the many members of pain management medical community, and, just as important, the patients who rely on them.
Filed under: General Problems
As I Have Repeated Too Many Times ; All Of My Medically Necessary Prescriptions Have Been /Are, Covertly Nonstandardized, Misrepresented, And Have Caused Me Significantly Harm. I Have Returned More Than I Can Count, And Was Informed That Im “Not Allowed” To Return Them To The Pharmacy Where I Received Them. Everyone I Know On Disability Is Admitting The Something. Even If I Could Afford A Compounding Pharmacy, Once They Hear ImI On Dis Ability, I’m Given An Excuse For Not Being Able To Access Them. My Health, Life, And Potential To Move Forward Is Compromised By These Undisclosed, Unethical, And Destabilizing Practices Which Began With Obama’s Health care Reform. We Need Courageous Toxicologists To Analyze These Frankenmeds, As They Are Not What What They Are Purported To Be. And Was Told By Two Pharmacists That They Are NOT ALLOWED To Know What’s In Them. Who And How Can There Be Any Accountability For The Damage Done ? Trioxide = Synthetic Arsenic And Cadmium Is A Dangerous Heavy Metal ; Both Were Discovered In A Heavy Metal Test Ordered By My Doctor. Now The NIH Discourages Drs From Ordering These Tests. It’s No Wonder Congress And The Senate Excluded Themselves And Families From An Act I Never Knew Existed. Thanks To CIAAG Betrayal Of A . Nation.
‘On how many fronts can we sue? Let me count the ways…’
Andrea Andersen offered me some instructions on how WE must proceed, also, we need to wait for some other things to occur FIRST.
“Here you go: the rules are so important that only 1-2 law firms in the US do SC work.
“My best advice is, …first wait and see if the Court accepts the writ(s).
If they do, we will see if they agree to consolidate the two cases or not – that will change our efforts.
At that point, patient and professionals orgs can and should submit amicus (amicus means “friend of the court,” or a party who will be affected by the ruling). I strongly suggest patients not do this themselves, but do so under an umbrella of a group that can afford to hire an attorney to prepare the briefs.
Read through the standards below and I think you will see why I think it would be very difficult for most patients to do this on their own.
That said, I will work with the attorneys of record to develop the language needed to file effective briefs and will distribute to all in a timely fashion if we get the opportunity to do so.”
Thank you Andrea
https://www.supremecourt.gov/casehand/AmicusGuide2019.pdf
Hi, I didn’t understand what we can do exactly to help.. please let us know.
So exactly how can WE (patients and docs) give “consideration in helping the high court understand how much is at stake for the many members of pain management medical community…”? I missed that.
LOVELY!!!!
“…the feds have changed the phrase “the bounds of professional practice” — and, similarly, “legitimate medical purpose” and “course of professional practice” — to mean a departure from nationally recognized standards and fully into the drug trafficking arena.”