IB 
Union Calendar No. 567 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 2994 
[Report No. 110–871] 
To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to pain care. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 11, 2007 
Mrs. CAPPS (for herself and Mr. ROGERS of Michigan) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
SEPTEMBER 23, 2008 
Additional sponsors: Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. BOUCHER, Mr. STUPAK, Mr. KEN-
NEDY, Mr. WALBERG, Mr. UPTON, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. GORDON of 
Tennessee, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. MARSHALL, Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of Cali-
fornia, Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, Mr. RUSH, Mr. KILDEE, Mr. DEAL 
of Georgia, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. GON-
ZALEZ, Mr. PLATTS, Mr. MURTHA, Mr. RAHALL, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. 
TOWNS, Ms. SOLIS, Ms. DEGETTE, Mr. TIBERI, Mr. LATHAM, Mr. 
ALLEN, Mr. GILCHREST, Mr. WYNN, Mr. ROTHMAN, Mr. ROSS, Ms. 
HOOLEY, Mr. WEXLER, Ms. SHEA-PORTER, Mr. LATOURETTE, Mr. CAR-
SON, Mr. WELCH of Vermont, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr. 
FARR, Mr. WAMP, Mr. DAVID DAVIS of Tennessee, Mr. ALTMIRE, Mr. 
WALSH of New York, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. KUHL of New York, Mr. RYAN 
of Ohio, Mr. LOEBSACK, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. 
SESTAK, Mrs. DAVIS of California, Mrs. MYRICK, and Mr. WAXMAN 
SEPTEMBER 23, 2008 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
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[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on July 11, 2007] 
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 ‘‘Na-
tional Pain Care Policy Act of 2008’’. 
(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. 
SEC. 2. INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE CONFERENCE ON PAIN. 
(a) CONVENING.—Not later than June 30, 2009, the 
Secretary of Health and Human Services shall seek to enter 
into an agreement with the Institute of Medicine of the Na-
tional 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— 
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(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 iden-
tified 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— 
(i) specific to those populations that 
are 
disproportionately 
undertreated 
for 
pain; 
(ii) related to physician concerns over 
regulatory and law enforcement policies ap-
plicable to some pain therapies; and 
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(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. 
(d) REPORT.—A report summarizing the Conference’s 
findings and recommendations shall be submitted to the 
Congress not later than June 30, 2010. 
(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For the 
purpose of carrying out this section, there is authorized to 
be appropriated $500,000 for each of fiscal years 2009 and 
2010. 
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SEC. 3. PAIN RESEARCH AT NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF 
HEALTH. 
Part B of title IV of the Public Health Service Act 
(42 U.S.C. 284 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 
the following: 
‘‘SEC. 409J. PAIN RESEARCH. 
‘‘(a) RESEARCH INITIATIVES.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of NIH is en-
couraged to continue and expand, through the Pain 
Consortium, an aggressive program of basic and clin-
ical research on the causes of and potential treatments 
for pain. 
‘‘(2) ANNUAL RECOMMENDATIONS.—Not less than 
annually, the Pain Consortium, in consultation with 
the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and 
Strategic Initiatives, shall develop and submit to the 
Director of NIH recommendations on appropriate 
pain research initiatives that could be undertaken 
with funds reserved under section 402A(c)(1) for the 
Common Fund or otherwise available for such initia-
tives. 
‘‘(3) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 
‘Pain Consortium’ means the Pain Consortium of the 
National Institutes of Health or a similar trans-Na-
tional Institutes of Health coordinating entity des-
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