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]

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]

As always, we ask that you help PRN fight to protect the rights of patients and the doctors who treat them. Thank you for clicking the link below.



www.painreliefnetwork.org
info@painreliefnetwork.org

Shop online using iGive, and Support the Pain Relief Network!