Physician Flexibility to Treat Could Aid Patients’ Access to Pain Management
Patient access remains a pressure point in effective pain management. More flexibility for physicians’ treatments could bring relief, according to a recent Arthritis Foundation discussion.
By Erin Payer | Dec. 18, 2025
The continued need for new pain treatments and a strong patient-provider relationship with the flexibility to try a range of treatment options will help reclaim well-being for patients. That was the consensus during the recent Arthritis Foundation’s Pain Management Revisited panel discussion, which reconvened patient and industry experts on the current state of pain treatment and management. While excitement about therapeutic advancements since the 2020 pain roundtable was shared, panelists also acknowledged that access to effective treatment remains out of reach for many people dealing with chronic pain.
Elevating the personal side to the conversation about pain, patient testimonials speaking to the challenges of symptom management were shared, revealing three prevailing themes: 1) the inconsistent access to effective treatment; 2) the functional impairment that prevents engagement in day-to-day life; and 3) the dismissal of symptoms and lack of empathy from others. As one Arthritis Foundation survey respondent put it when asked what their biggest challenge in managing arthritis pain has been, “It’s always there on some level all the time. There’s no break from it. The lack of understanding, empathy, and minimizing of pain from having chronic conditions from people around you, or even in the medical profession.”
Digging deeper into the root of inconsistency surrounding treatment access, Daniel Blaney-Cohen, Senior Attorney for the American Medical Association, reiterated his analysis from the previous roundtable, stating that many state-level policies continue to take a one-size-fits-all approach to regulating pain therapy. Pointing to the National Opioid Settlements as an opening for a range of areas that could help patients with pain, including improving access to care, targeted research and increased benefits. “There’s a lot of opportunity to help patients with pain, but it’s going to take dedicated commitment by policymakers and continued efforts by advocates to get there.”
Speaking to the many factors that affect patients’ experience of pain, Scott Davidoff, MD, board-certified physiatrist and past President of the American Board of Pain Medicine, recognized the necessity of pain management protocols but advocated for the push toward individualized care. “The term pain management means management,” Davidoff said, “blood sugar management, weight management, hormone level management, stressor and fatigue management. It is not just one thing. We need to take a step back and look at whole body health.”
Greater awareness of the need for whole-body health has led patients to drive demand for non-medical pain interventions. Tonya Horton, a long-serving Arthritis Foundation patient advocate and educator, shared her recent experience attending a New Jersey Chiropractic Conference on behalf of the Local Leadership Board. “I was in extreme pain that day and a vendor allowed me to try their red-light therapy product,” Horton said, “and it did give me some relief. I am open to and looking for new ideas like this for pain management and want to share them with people who might not have access to the same resources that I have access to.”
However, moving new therapeutic modalities into practice depends on strategic collaboration to successfully navigate the complex rules for approval, clinical design and testing and insurance coverage. This requires clinicians, researchers and regulators to partner closely together. As Marc Gruner, MD, a Mayo Clinic-trained sports medicine physician, elaborated, “Remote therapeutic monitoring is a great example of a pain management modality that has advanced patient care and outcomes over the last five plus years. The ability to implement this technology in practice has been made possible by the introduction of new Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes that expand coverage to include non-physiological data. So today, we have ways to use this technology to improve adherence to nondrug options for pain management, like evidence-based exercise and physical therapy approaches.”
As the panelists looked ahead to the future of pain management, they emphasized a major unmet need in therapeutic research discovery: long-term, precisely targeted treatments with no side effects. Thanks to recent scientific advances, meeting this need appears increasingly possible. Medications that block pain signals before they reach the brain could be transformative, and emerging research on peptide therapies for tissue regeneration and inflammation reduction is equally promising, though insurance coverage remains a significant hurdle.
Bridging new treatment discoveries to real-world, individualized care will continue to require the centering of the patient-provider relationship. As Kirsten Ambrose, Associate Director for the Osteoarthritis Action Alliance, put it, “The onus is on patients to communicate their needs to their providers, and on providers to connect their patients to resources that will enhance their total care package. This may look like marrying self-management techniques like physical activity with new treatment breakthroughs as they become available and accessible.”
Shared decision-making in pain care — between the patient and health care providers — falls at the intersection of improved utilization management (the process used by health care plans to evaluate the necessity, efficiency and appropriateness of treatments), increased flexibility led by empathy and responsiveness to patients’ values and preferences. As Dr. Davidoff recapped, “You know, let us help patients. Let’s continue breaking down barriers that allow us to access and act on the data that enables us to tailor our treatment recommendations based on each patient’s response profile.”
Dr. Gruner summed it up, “Let’s get to what actually matters to our patients.”
Thanks to our partners, Kenvue and Takeda, for supporting our work in elevating the patient voice to address unmet pain management needs.
The continued need for new pain treatments and a strong patient-provider relationship with the flexibility to try a range of treatment options will help reclaim well-being for patients. That was the consensus during the recent Arthritis Foundation’s Pain Management Revisited panel discussion, which reconvened patient and industry experts on the current state of pain treatment and management. While excitement about therapeutic advancements since the 2020 pain roundtable was shared, panelists also acknowledged that access to effective treatment remains out of reach for many people dealing with chronic pain.
Elevating the personal side to the conversation about pain, patient testimonials speaking to the challenges of symptom management were shared, revealing three prevailing themes: 1) the inconsistent access to effective treatment; 2) the functional impairment that prevents engagement in day-to-day life; and 3) the dismissal of symptoms and lack of empathy from others. As one Arthritis Foundation survey respondent put it when asked what their biggest challenge in managing arthritis pain has been, “It’s always there on some level all the time. There’s no break from it. The lack of understanding, empathy, and minimizing of pain from having chronic conditions from people around you, or even in the medical profession.”
Digging deeper into the root of inconsistency surrounding treatment access, Daniel Blaney-Cohen, Senior Attorney for the American Medical Association, reiterated his analysis from the previous roundtable, stating that many state-level policies continue to take a one-size-fits-all approach to regulating pain therapy. Pointing to the National Opioid Settlements as an opening for a range of areas that could help patients with pain, including improving access to care, targeted research and increased benefits. “There’s a lot of opportunity to help patients with pain, but it’s going to take dedicated commitment by policymakers and continued efforts by advocates to get there.”
Speaking to the many factors that affect patients’ experience of pain, Scott Davidoff, MD, board-certified physiatrist and past President of the American Board of Pain Medicine, recognized the necessity of pain management protocols but advocated for the push toward individualized care. “The term pain management means management,” Davidoff said, “blood sugar management, weight management, hormone level management, stressor and fatigue management. It is not just one thing. We need to take a step back and look at whole body health.”
Greater awareness of the need for whole-body health has led patients to drive demand for non-medical pain interventions. Tonya Horton, a long-serving Arthritis Foundation patient advocate and educator, shared her recent experience attending a New Jersey Chiropractic Conference on behalf of the Local Leadership Board. “I was in extreme pain that day and a vendor allowed me to try their red-light therapy product,” Horton said, “and it did give me some relief. I am open to and looking for new ideas like this for pain management and want to share them with people who might not have access to the same resources that I have access to.”
However, moving new therapeutic modalities into practice depends on strategic collaboration to successfully navigate the complex rules for approval, clinical design and testing and insurance coverage. This requires clinicians, researchers and regulators to partner closely together. As Marc Gruner, MD, a Mayo Clinic-trained sports medicine physician, elaborated, “Remote therapeutic monitoring is a great example of a pain management modality that has advanced patient care and outcomes over the last five plus years. The ability to implement this technology in practice has been made possible by the introduction of new Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes that expand coverage to include non-physiological data. So today, we have ways to use this technology to improve adherence to nondrug options for pain management, like evidence-based exercise and physical therapy approaches.”
As the panelists looked ahead to the future of pain management, they emphasized a major unmet need in therapeutic research discovery: long-term, precisely targeted treatments with no side effects. Thanks to recent scientific advances, meeting this need appears increasingly possible. Medications that block pain signals before they reach the brain could be transformative, and emerging research on peptide therapies for tissue regeneration and inflammation reduction is equally promising, though insurance coverage remains a significant hurdle.
Bridging new treatment discoveries to real-world, individualized care will continue to require the centering of the patient-provider relationship. As Kirsten Ambrose, Associate Director for the Osteoarthritis Action Alliance, put it, “The onus is on patients to communicate their needs to their providers, and on providers to connect their patients to resources that will enhance their total care package. This may look like marrying self-management techniques like physical activity with new treatment breakthroughs as they become available and accessible.”
Shared decision-making in pain care — between the patient and health care providers — falls at the intersection of improved utilization management (the process used by health care plans to evaluate the necessity, efficiency and appropriateness of treatments), increased flexibility led by empathy and responsiveness to patients’ values and preferences. As Dr. Davidoff recapped, “You know, let us help patients. Let’s continue breaking down barriers that allow us to access and act on the data that enables us to tailor our treatment recommendations based on each patient’s response profile.”
Dr. Gruner summed it up, “Let’s get to what actually matters to our patients.”
Thanks to our partners, Kenvue and Takeda, for supporting our work in elevating the patient voice to address unmet pain management needs.
Stay in the Know. Live in the Yes.
Get involved with the arthritis community. Tell us a little about yourself and, based on your interests, you’ll receive emails packed with the latest information and resources to live your best life and connect with others.