A group of physicians urge the Joint Commission and the CMS to end policies that the group says can lead to opioid overprescribing and addiction.  The action came as the nation tries to deal with the opioid epidemic.
Signatories asked the Joint Commission to re-examine its Pain Management Standards — which once helped push the idea of pain as the “fifth vital sign” — and asked the  CMS to get rid of patient-satisfaction questions about pain from its reimbursement procedures.

The letters were sent by Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP), other medical and consumer groups and by senior health officials from Pennsylvania, Vermont, Alaska and Rhode Island.