During the 2011 legislative session HB 7095 the "Pain Bill"
passed and was enacted. For purpose of physician licensure
renewal, you are asked to indicate whether you treat chronic
non-malignant pain. The FCEP Board of Directors believes the
vast majority of emergency physicians do not treat or manage
patients for chronic pain. Rather, most of us treat acute
episodes of pain regardless of etiology of that pain. While
we do not want to issue a blanket recommendation to every
FCEP member, we believe most emergency physicians' practice
is similar to this type of practice. If you manage chronic
pain for patients in your practice, you should answer "yes."
If you do, then you should refer to the new practice
standards included in the bill. We hope this provides you
with some clarification as to how to respond on your
licensure renewal.
