The American Academy of Pain Medicine

Legal Side of Pain

AAPM Member Benefit

The past few years have shown changes in Pain Medicine’s legal and regulatory environment, many of which have caused apprehension with those practicing Pain Medicine. With many physicians having little or no formal training on legal and/or regulatory issues relating to pain management and controlled substance prescribing, AAPM has engaged the services of the Legal Side of Pain (LSOP) as an educational resource for its members.

This new benefit provides legal and regulatory educational resources for AAPM members, including the addition of Jennifer Bolen, JD as special counsel for academy members and preferred access to the Legal Side of Pain, a web-based resource that specializes in the education of health care providers, with an emphasis on the development and implementation of compliance programs related to pain management and the use of controlled substances to treat pain.
 
Ms. Bolen, a former assistant U.S. attorney with the Department of Justice, has expertise in the legal aspects of pain medicine and is familiar with AAPM and its members, having presented workshops focusing on legal and regulatory issues at the AAPM annual conference for the past few years.

Since January 1, 2006 the LSOP service has provided AAPM members with a variety of benefits including:

• Free membership in the Legal Side of Pain website, www.legalsideofpain.com, including a special section devoted exclusively to AAPM members.
• Access, via the LSOP website, to a large database of information on legal/regulatory issues in pain management and substance prescribing and additional risk management materials and educational information.
• Access to the Legal Side of Pain publications including Quick Briefs and a quarterly newsletter.
• Up to 30 minutes of one-to-one counsel with Jennifer Bolen, JD, via telephone and a reasonable number of e-mail contacts.

*AAPM members wanting to take advantage of the free membership on www.legalsideofpain.com can visit the website directly and register online. Please identify yourself as an AAPM member to receive the special member classification.
AAPM members needing legal advice or guidance and who would like to take advantage of the one-to-one counsel should contact Jennifer Bolan, JD directly at aapm@legalsideofpain.org. Please identify yourself as an AAPM member.

*Members wishing to engage the legal services of LSOP on an individual basis beyond the scope of services provided by this benefit shall be at the discretion of the physician and LSOP.