Tagged with

disparitiesedition3

What the New CMS Medicare Pain Codes Mean for You

Anyone who lives with chronic pain—or cares about someone who does—knows that treatment can be complex, time-consuming, and costly. At the start of 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) took a major step toward eliminating some of those obstacles when it debuted the first-ever specialized billing codes for chronic pain management in the Medicare program.

Complex Cases: When Multiple Diagnoses Make Managing Pain Difficult

Managing a chronic pain condition can be a full-time job. In addition to living with symptoms on a daily basis, individuals living with pain must find providers, understand health insurance, attend appointments, pick up prescriptions, make phone calls, pay bills, and more. But if managing pain and seeking health care is complicated and time-consuming for someone with a single diagnosis, what is it like for those living with multiple conditions?

The Unseen Victims of Chronic Pain: The Emotional Toll of Caregiving

Mental health is often inextricably linked to the chronic pain experience. One aspect of chronic pain that is sometimes overlooked is the mental health of caregivers or care partners. Like the patients they care for, care partners are also faced with mental-health challenges: many share their feelings of frustration, hopelessness, and depression at navigating a broken health care system, compounded by limited sleep and, often, difficulty getting time for themselves.