Intensive Outpatient Pain Management Cuts Costs of Treating Chronic Pain Patients

According to a study presented at the American Academy of Pain Medicine 2017 Annual Meeting, an intensive outpatient program, known as the Medical Pain Service, helped to reduce the costs associated with treating high utilization patients with chronic pain. 

“The focus of the Medical Pain Service intervention is not simply reduction of pain. It is optimized patient function across multiple domains, both somatic and psychological,” Steven Prakken, MD, lead author of the study and a pain medicine specialist at Duke Health said in a press release. “Our method is unique in that a multidisciplinary approach can be encompassed in a single visit with a single practitioner, therefore addressing more adequately the patients’ many needs.”

The researchers at Duke University developed the Medical Pain Service to manage pharmacological therapy for high utilizers through use of a physician-led care team specializing in psychiatry and pain medicine. In order to examine how the newly developed Medical Pain Service impacted the hospital’s economics outcome metrics, the researchers studied a cohort of 31 high utilizer patients with a diagnosis of chronic pain from between April 2014 and July 2015. They assessed the cohort’s inpatient and outpatient financial data after 1 year of participation in the Medical Pain Service.

Study results showed that total care costs decreased by 55% and yearly care costs decreased by 45%. The researchers also determined that the average annual per-patient costs savings were nearly $9000. These cost savings occurred across 14 predetermined cost areas including pharmacy, emergency department, lab, radiology, etc. 

“This research shows a clear path forward in containing the cost of an ever-expanding population,” Dr Prakken concluded in a press release. “Reproducing effective treatment modalities such as that of the Medical Pain Service, which dramatically reduces hospital system costs, may well lead the way to successful health care cost containment in the future.” —David Costill