January/February 2024

• NPAC successfully testified to support the removal of the Opioid Dosage Threshold for Chronic Noncancer Pain from 2026 Quality Standards for the MEDICAID/CHIP program due to the risk of patient harm. The MEDICAID/CHIP advisory committee voted to remove this provision.

• NPAC partnered with other disability rights organizations to oppose the Census Bureau's proposal to change questions about disability in the 2025 census. The new questions were likely to reduce current estimates of people living with disabilities in the US in ways that could undermine everything from funding to services. The Census Bureau agreed to retain the current questions for 2025.

• NPAC’s Executive Director spoke at the 5th Annual NIH HEAL Initiative Scientific Meeting on the importance oftranslating and disseminating science to people living with pain and their families.

• NPAC’s Executive Director participated in her first two-day meeting as a provisional appointee to the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council (Council). The National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke oversees most NIH pain research.

• NPAC worked with lawyers at the Legal Action Center on how to evaluate legal claims related to healthcare abandonment and termination of opioids in people taking them for pain. 

• NPAC collaborated with Spondylitis Association to deliver the Health Equity Symposium: "The Global & Intersectional Experience of Pain." The symposium was delivered by NPAC Science and Policy Advisors Dr. Samina Ali, Dr. Tamara Baker, Dr. Monica Mallampalli, and Executive Director Kate Nicholson.