Governor Responds to New CDC Guidelines on Opioid Prescribing

BOSTON — Gov. Charlie Baker issued a statement this week in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new guidelines that urge general doctors to consider alternative treatments such as physical therapy, exercise, and over-the-counter pain medications before prescribing opioids for chronic pain.

“A day after signing into law landmark legislation to fight the Commonwealth’s opioid epidemic, I welcome today’s new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to encourage doctors to prescribe fewer opioids and focus on safer, alternative treatments for chronic pain,” Baker said. “The Baker-Polito administration is dedicated to combating the deadly opioid and heroin epidemic at the state level, recognizing that one bill, one budget, or one program will not be enough to curb this public-health crisis.

“Yesterday, I was honored to sign an opioid bill that includes the first law in the nation to limit an opioid prescription to a seven-day supply for first-time adult prescriptions, and other important prevention and education provisions recommended by our opioid working group — and we encourage other states to do the same,” he went on. “Recognizing that patients living with chronic pain need access to treatments that will relieve their suffering, I encourage physicians to adopt these new guidelines and discuss alternatives to addictive opioids with their patients. It will take all levels of government and intense involvement from law enforcement and the healthcare community to bend the trend, and I encourage all doctors to practice these new guidelines as we continue to break ground in passing more reforms to eradicate the opioid epidemic.”

Meanwhile, the American Medical Assoc. (AMA) noted its shared goal of reducing harm from opioid abuse in applauding the CDC for making the issue a high priority, but also shared some reservations.

“While we are largely supportive of the guidelines, we remain concerned about the evidence base informing some of the recommendations, conflicts with existing state laws and product labeling, and possible unintended consequences associated with implementation, which includes access and insurance-coverage limitations for non-pharmacologic treatments, especially comprehensive care, and the potential effects of strict dosage and duration limits on patient care,” said Dr. Patrice Harris, AMA board chair-elect and chair of the AMA Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse.

“We know this is a difficult issue and doesn’t have easy solutions, and if these guidelines help reduce the deaths resulting from opioids, they will prove to be valuable,” he added. “If they produce unintended consequences, we will need to mitigate them. They are not the final word. More needs to be done, and we plan to continue working at the state and federal level to engage policy makers to take steps that will help end this epidemic.”