Insurers push back on HHS recommendations for non-opioid treatment

Modern Healthcare: Insurers pushed back against an HHS task force's finding that they are not covering non-opioid pain management therapies such as acupuncture, while proponents of such treatment see a chance to argue for Medicare reimbursement.

A congressionally mandated report from the Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force on gaps in treatment concluded that payers often don't pay for non-opioid therapies that are more expensive than opioids. But America's Health Insurance Plans, the top insurance lobbying group, said in comments to the report that it isn't that simple.

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