I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 756 
To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to pain care. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 28, 2009 
Mrs. CAPPS (for herself and Mr. ROGERS of Michigan) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to 
pain care. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘National Pain Care Policy Act of 2009’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Institute of Medicine Conference on Pain. 
Sec. 3. Pain research at National Institutes of Health. 
Sec. 4. Pain care education and training. 
Sec. 5. Public awareness campaign on pain management. 
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SEC. 2. INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE CONFERENCE ON PAIN. 
(a) CONVENING.—Not later than June 30, 2010, the 
Secretary of Health and Human Services shall seek to 
enter into an agreement with the Institute of Medicine of 
the National Academies to convene a Conference on Pain 
(in this section referred to as ‘‘the Conference’’). 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of the Conference 
shall be to— 
(1) increase the recognition of pain as a signifi-
cant public health problem in the United States; 
(2) evaluate the adequacy of assessment, diag-
nosis, treatment, and management of acute and 
chronic pain in the general population, and in identi-
fied racial, ethnic, gender, age, and other demo-
graphic groups that may be disproportionately af-
fected by inadequacies in the assessment, diagnosis, 
treatment, and management of pain; 
(3) identify barriers to appropriate pain care, 
including— 
(A) lack of understanding and education 
among employers, patients, health care pro-
viders, regulators, and third-party payors; 
(B) barriers to access to care at the pri-
mary, specialty, and tertiary care levels, includ-
ing barriers— 
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(i) specific to those populations that 
are disproportionately undertreated for 
pain; 
(ii) related to physician concerns over 
regulatory and law enforcement policies 
applicable to some pain therapies; and 
(iii) attributable to benefit, coverage, 
and payment policies in both the public 
and private sectors; and 
(C) gaps in basic and clinical research on 
the symptoms and causes of pain, and potential 
assessment methods and new treatments to im-
prove pain care; and 
(4) establish an agenda for action in both the 
public and private sectors that will reduce such bar-
riers and significantly improve the state of pain care 
research, education, and clinical care in the United 
States. 
(c) OTHER APPROPRIATE ENTITY.—If the Institute 
of Medicine declines to enter into an agreement under sub-
section (a), the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
may enter into such agreement with another appropriate 
entity. 
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