Pain patients push for new legislation

A group of Montana pain patients told a legislative committee on Friday that treatment for their chronic pain is a fundamental human right, but often out of reach.

Terri Anderson of Hamilton proposed the Pain Patients’ Bill of Rights to the state Health and Human Services Interim Committee.

Anderson said she faces chronic back pain due to adhesive arachnoiditis, a condition she received from a misplaced epidural steroid injection.

“We all recognized that prescriptions were overprescribed ... doctors gave them out like candy,” Anderson said. “But now, legitimate pain patients can’t get their medicine.”

The draft bill states while Montana has the right and duty to control the illegal use of opiate drugs and a patient suffering from chronic and/or intolerable pain should have access to safe and effective treatment within a reasonable time frame.

State Rep. Albert Olszewski, a Flathead Valley Orthopedic Center surgeon, said the Legislature has focused on limiting opioid use because of people who abuse prescription drugs. He said while he believed in treating people’s pain, he was concerned about creating protection for a medication that often led to addiction.

As the committee talked, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell’s office announced Montana would receive $758,334 to support Montana health centers to expand their delivery of substance abuse services.

The funding is intended to increase the number of patients screened for substance use disorders in underserved populations and connect them to treatment.

“The opioid epidemic is one of the most pressing public health issues in the United States today,” Burwell said. “Expanding access to medication-assisted treatment and integrating these services in health centers bolsters nationwide efforts to curb opioid misuse and abuse.”

According to the Health and Human Services, an estimated 4.5 million people in 2013 used prescription pain relievers for nonmedical reasons.

In Montana, the Public Health and Safety Division reported prescription drug abuse contributed to the death of more than 300 people from 2011 through 2013 — making prescription drug abuse 15 times more deadly than meth, heroine and cocaine combined.

Those who advocated for the Pain Patients’ Bill of Rights said the state failed to verify those deaths didn’t involve heroin or alcohol. They also said that the 300 also included cases of suicide instead of accidental drug overdose.

Casey Brock of Glendive, a disabled veteran, advocated for the bill and said the current mentality toward drug prescribing has created fear for those who are in chronic pain and their doctors.

“We have doctors here in that state who won’t even prescribe,” he said.

Since 2015, the state Board of Medical Examiners has suspended two doctors from their practice for over-prescribing pain medicine.

Dr. Clyde Knecht of Libby was suspended for prescribing one patient roughly 2,500 doses of hydrocodone-acetaminophen.

Dr. Chris Christensen of Florence was suspended and charged with two counts of negligent homicide and hundred of counts of illegal distribution of drugs.

Dr. Mark Ibsen from Helena said during public comments that the bill would protect patients from being dropped by physicians out of fear of retribution.

Ibsen said he stopped prescribing opioids to patients after Christensen was arrested. Soon after, he closed his practice when prosecutors alleged he was negligent in his prescriptions.

In a phone interview, Ibsen said he believed he would be suspended from his practice at his March 22 hearing.

“I took on patients others were too scared to serve,” Ibsen said. “I stopped because I realized just how vulnerable I am in this hostile regulatory environment.”

Ibsen said he focused on medical marijuana to treat people in chronic pain and travels to Kalispell, Billings and Missoula to write medical marijuana prescriptions.

Ibsen said he is now facing more scrutiny from the state after the Montana Supreme Court ruled last month that doctors who write more than 25 marijuana prescriptions a year must go before the Board of Health.

Ibsen said the Pain Patients’ Bill of Rights would protect patients from being dropped by physicians out of fear of retribution in a state that continues to reduce people’s access to medication.

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.