PRN files State Tort Claim vs. WA State
Pain Relief Network files State Tort Claim vs. WA State; Laura Cooper, Esq.; Pain Relief Network; 2008/07/08. [Full text PDF]
Permalink: http://doctordeluca.com/wordpress/archive/prn-tort-claim-vs-wa/
See also:
PRN Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, and Damages – 2008
and,
WA’s Interagency Guideline on Opioid Dosing for Non-Cancer Pain – 2007
SUMMARY:
Nature of Relief Sought: This lawsuit is the result of grossly misinformed prejudices about opioid(1) pain medications held by high-level Washington public health officials. Those prejudices are identified in medical literature as opiophobia.(2) As a direct result of public health policies based on opiophobia, chronic pain patients in Washington are now unable reliably to secure necessary and appropriate treatment for their severe pain anywhere within the State of Washington. The dilemma of the chronic pain patients arises out of overreaching actions on behalf of senior public health officials, as well as that opiophobia – which has now permeated the entire Washington State health culture and also unlawfully influences medical licensing decisions.
This claim is asserted by three individuals as representatives of a larger Class, as well as a physician acting in the capacity of patient representative for the Class. The physician specializes in the treatment of pain. The care of two of the individual pain patients is currently threatened; an additional individual pain patient represents those patients whose treatment options have collapsed so completely that they have been forced to seek care outside the State. All three of the individual pain patients share a common legal problem: specific actions taken by the named Washington public health officials have impaired their necessary medical care.
In addition to the stark incivility of this situation, the challenged state actions constitute violations of both federal and state law. Federal claims have already been asserted in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, and are docketed as case No. 2:08-cv-200. The state claims asserted here will be added as amendments to that federal case after the expiration of 60 days from their submission herein unless these state claims have been fully settled.
The state actions responsible for the incomprehensible deprivation of medically-necessary pain treatment for these patients arise out of two separate but legally-related state actions:
1) publication by the Agency Medical Directors Group of the Interagency Guideline on Opioid Dosing for Chronic Non-cancer Pain; and,
2) a nonstatutory licensure enforcement regime applied by the Washington Medical Quality Assurance Commission [hereinafter MQAC] against physicians(3) who treat chronic pain patients with opioid medications, as exemplified in its own decisions(4) as well as by conduct of MQAC agents during enforcement actions.(5)
While both types of regulatory actions have targeted medical professionals, they are in reality aimed squarely at the patients, who are now official medical pariahs as a direct result of those state actions. Both state actions challenged herein arise out of a public health culture in Washington that is defiant of the rule of law, principles of science, and basic decency.
[END]
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Thanks for making this information available. I am a pain patient in Washington. I do have a doc, but with this stuff going on he may decide not to treat pain, It scares me But I feel empowered by the knowledge that reading the complaint in the janes case will you being posting when it goes to court
Thank you, Karen, for Commenting.
Yes, I will post updates to both the WA State lawsuit and Kansas (Dr. Schneider) cases, as they evolve.
Promise. -smile-
..alex…
Dr. Deluca I just want to say thanks. For the 9 years I have been in pain, the information I have received through your website has been very helpful. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
Your class action suit needs to use key words like" unnecessary torture" imposed by the government in their witch hunt. Can anyone find any link to the insurance industry? The insurance industry is the only ones to gain by this crackdown ( it would save them millions).
Also, we need to hold any politician who aligns themselves with the insurance industry or the fed crack down.
Will this new HB that the WA state legislature just passed and the governor signed affect the suit? I've already experienced the total collapse of receiving chronic pain care in Washington state and I'm forced to travel out of state. Without adequate pain care I face losing my job, house and family so I'm literally bankrupting myself trying to obtain treatment.
I am a WA pain patient who has been forced to leave the state for pain treatment. This is an outrage and I am shocked that pain patients have no rights in this overegulated state. We did nothing to deserve this. How dare paper pushers come between the doctor/patient relationship!
I am looking for a doctor to give me my pain meds. that I have been on for 15 years. My pain is so severe that I can no longer do housework, enjoy what little life I have or anything. Please someone help me. I have no insurance and the doctors here want 450.00 one week and 450.00 the next. I can not afford that.
Where do you go? I have had trouble getting any kind of meds. from doctors…. Please let me know
Chris
I had a doctor prescribing cronic pain meds for many years on a federal compensation claim. During that time, I moved out of the city where he practices but continued to see him. Suddenly, I was told that I could no longer get the medications unless I had an evaluation by a specialist who did not accept federal compensation claims and I had to submit to a urine test within a short time which I could not get to and could not find a local lab that would again take the federal compensation. The doctors office said they were following all guidelines just by making recommendations for consultations and I was lelt to go through withdrawals for months which in turn caused medical problems. Finally after more than 6 months, all I have to deal with is cronic pain. Someone should have to answer for making it impossible for people doing what they are supposed to do and not giving them a means to get off the medication. I could not and still can not believe lawmakers can be so stupid as to believe they can just make it impossible for a doctor to prescribe these medications without mandating that they somehow treat the addiction. I would love to get involved in a class action lawsuit, I think I have a lot to add.