Healthcare Reimbursement System's Perspective

As intractable pain management remains a low priority in healthcare, so does it remain a low priority in healthcare reimbursement.^1,2 In the United States, many intractable pain patients are not able to comply with their intractable pain treatment because they don’t have the appropriate healthcare coverage to pay for their medication or equipment.

The United States is one of few developed countries that does not provide healthcare coverage for its citizens³; therefore, economic status ultimately determines the quality of care that patients receive.⁴ The following pattern has developed between patients’ economic status and the quality healthcare that is readily available to them:

• patients’ economic status reflects the amount of insurance affordable to them
• the type of insurance patients have determines the amount of healthcare coverage they will receive
• the amount of healthcare coverage patients receive determines how well they will comply with their prescribed treatment

Steps to overcome healthcare reimbursement limitations