North Carolina medical journal
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is seeking to transform Medicare by purchasing "value" from health care providers and physicians. At Vidant Medical Center, we have begun to link the requirements of the CMS Value-Based Purchasing Program to the goals and objectives embedded within our quality improvement initiatives.
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Chronic pain and mental health: moving beyond the conceptualization of pain as the fifth vital sign.
Current approaches to the assessment and treatment of chronic pain continue to rely predominantly on the medical model. However, the comorbidity of chronic pain with psychiatric conditions underscores the need for a biopsychosocial and interdisciplinary approach to pain that can bridge the gap between scientific understanding and medical practice.
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This article reviews the public health consequences of current approaches to chronic pain management, particularly those related to prescription of opioid analgesics and other controlled medications. This article also reviews factors contributing to these negative trends and discusses potential strategies for reversing them.