Everything Pain Management Providers in Arizona Need to Know to Keep Their Careers Active and on Track

Data from the University of Arizona indicated that a total of 60 pain medicine and pain management specialists were practicing in the state as of 2019. While other sources indicate a higher total, and pain management clinicians aren’t always easy to label, Arizonans’ pain is undeniably underserved when you evaluate it by the total number of providers in the state.

This backdrop—a relatively short supply of pain management specialists in Arizona—helps us better see the high stakes of any issue that threatens to take a provider out of practice. Whether the threat to a pain management physician (or other type of provider) is a temporary absence from practice or permanent license revocation, that threat is an urgent matter.

If you are a provider who assists patients with pain management in any way, we want to keep you serving those patients. We help clients resolve a breadth of professional issues, from complaints of misconduct to administrative problems (created by you or others), bureaucratic inefficiencies, substance use disorders, insurance-related headaches, and more.

Call the LLF National Law Firm Professional License Defense Team today at 888-535-3686 or contact us online to discuss your problem and our plan to put it behind you.

Which Authorities Regulate Pain Management Clinicians in Arizona?

The phrase pain management is not quite as precise as, say, anesthesiology or ENT. Though Pain Medicine is a recognized medical subspecialty, one might also use the phrase “pain management” in reference to:

• Diagnostic procedures to identify the source of a patient’s pain
• The prescription, dispensation, and management of oral medication (including but not limited to opioid medications, steroids, muscle relaxants, antidepressants, and even ketamine)
• The prescription and administration of injectable therapies
• Physical therapy, occupational therapy, and occupational exercise
• Acupuncture
• Chiropractic care
• Massage therapy
• Therapeutic techniques, including but not limited to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and stress-reduction practices
• Prescription for medical cannabis
• Integrated care that combines two or more of these or other qualifying pain-management approaches

Laymen often think of pain management as the prescription of opioids, but for most providers, diagnosing and treating pain involves much more than writing a script.

Depending on how you use the phrase “pain management,” many providers with many titles may be said to practice “pain management.” Therefore, our Professional License Defense Team may assist you in dealing with:

• The Arizona Medical Board (AMB)
• The Arizona Board of Osteopathic Examiners
• Arizona State Board of Pharmacy
• Arizona Board of Osteopathic Medicine
• Arizona Physical Therapy Board
• The Arizona Board of Chiropractic Examiners
• The Arizona Board of Psychologist Examiners
• The Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners

We are familiar with each of these Boards. The path we take as we aim to resolve your particular issue may vary depending on which Board (or Boards) we are dealing with, and we will quickly deduce the right strategic path for your case.

Who, Exactly, Do These Boards Oversee?

While Pain Medicine can be a subspecialty, it is not the preeminent title that a practitioner holds. The following types of providers may be said to practice pain management, whether on a full-time or part-time basis:

• Pain Medicine Physicians, who may be an MD or DO who is Board-certified to practice Pain Medicine
• Interventional Pain Management specialists
• Anesthesiologists
• Physicians who specialize in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R)
• Neurologists
• Nurse Practitioners (NPs)
• Physician Assistants (PAs)
• Physical Therapists
• Chiropractors
• Psychologists

If you play any role within the relatively broad landscape of managing patients’ pain, and you are dealing with an issue that could adversely affect your career, do not wait to contact our Professional License Defense Team.

Issues That Can Land Clinicians on the Wrong Side of Regulators

Arizona’s days of being a wild, Western frontier are long gone. 3:10 to Yuma has never felt more fictional, particularly for those who deal daily with the administrative complaints (and malpractice complaints) that seem ever-present in the patient-care fields.

Today’s Arizona—from Phoenix to Kingman, Prescott, and Tucson—is one where pain management providers are closely monitored and regulated by powerful authorities. Such oversight is necessary, but qualified, well-intended pain management providers may not feel that way when they:

• Are targeted by a false misconduct complaint: False or exaggerated complaints may even come from patients whom the provider has gone above and beyond to try to help.
• Are intensely scrutinized for professional imperfections (or even serious errors):  Legitimate concern about opioid abuse is among the reasons why Arizona pain management providers face intense, ever-present scrutiny of their professional conduct. Arizona law’s definition of “unprofessional conduct,” which can be grounds for discipline, includes violations of any federal or state laws in the practice of medicine, privacy violations, inadequate record-keeping, fraud, prescribing errors, and a host of other violations.
• See their personal life become a professional issue: Criminal convictions, non-compliance with court orders (including child-support orders), substance-related struggles, and certain other developments in a provider’s personal life can impede their ability to practice.
• Make a seemingly minor administrative mistake that creates major professional migraines: Paperwork, documentation, continuing medical education (CME), license renewal conditions, deadlines, and other administrative demands are part of professional life in pain management. Missed deadlines, slight shortcomings in completing CME units, incomplete or inaccurate paperwork, and other seemingly minor administrative mistakes can have major professional ramifications.

Medical providers are human. The regulators who oversee pain management providers are human. Those who file complaints against pain management providers are human. Humans are imperfect.

Humans’ imperfections, as well as flaws in the technologies critical to the practice and oversight of the medical field, make professional issues inevitable.

Whether you have made a mistake or you are dealing with a problem resulting from someone else’s or technology’s shortcomings, we want to ensure you don’t pay an unfair professional cost for that mistake.

Hazards Outside of Clinicians’ Control That Might Endanger Your Career (and Reputation)

Let’s talk about those issues and mistakes that are outside of a pain management provider’s control—but can be just as harmful as their own errors. Your license and professional reputation might suffer as a result of:

• Administrative errors on someone else’s part
• Legal issues that are not within the provider’s control
• Delays in processing or reporting that affect one’s license (such as a prolonged failure to report the provider’s progress in CME)

You might also categorize false or exaggerated complaints as a “hazard outside of a clinician’s control.” A malicious or frivolous complaint can cause substantial harm to the provider if their respective Board does not handle the complaint properly.

Our Professional License Defense Team has represented providers who have made mistakes and are willing to take full accountability for them. We have represented providers who have made mistakes, but are not comfortable placing themselves at the mercy of regulators to show them mercy.

We have also represented providers who have suffered, or are facing, harm because of circumstances not of their own doing. In each of these cases, we fight strategically and urgently to make the best of a bad situation for the provider we are representing.

Pain Management Is a Regulatory Sore Spot. Here Is Why That Matters for You.

What does a pain management provider in Lake Havasu City or Sierra Vista have to do with Florida, West Virginia, or Kentucky?

The stigma of the opioid crisis extends to providers nationwide. Communities ravaged in Appalachia, in part due to unethical providers operating Florida-based pill mills, continue to cast a shadow over legitimate, ethical pain management providers in modern-day Arizona.

Honest, compassionate providers continue to pay for the negligence (and even malice) of regulators and bad-faith actors (over the course of more than a decade) because:

• The Arizona Opioid Epidemic Act, passed in 2018, placed greater prescribing conditions and documentation requirements on providers (increasing the likelihood of mistakes that could trigger severe professional discipline)
• Under this Act, providers may be evaluated by subjective guidelines such as the volume and appropriateness of their prescribing
• Arizona regulators may fear the perception of being soft on opioids, contributing to overzealous and draconian disciplinary rulings

This legislation may also increase the likelihood that federal authorities may become involved in a provider’s professional affairs—and that a serious legal case may become a provider’s unexpected reality.

Our Professional License Defense Team is built to handle the most serious professional matters, including those that involve legal cases. We believe that the sins of another (regulator or provider) should not be your burden to carry, and we bring that spirit to our advocacy.

How Complaints Against Pain Management Clinicians Are Adjudicated

We are not assuming that you are the target of a complaint. If you have an administrative problem or other issue that does not involve a complaint of misconduct, we remain the team to call.

That being said, misconduct allegations are some of the most oft-seen issues that threaten pain management providers’ licenses and reputations. It is worth examining how the Arizona Medical Board—one of the Boards that might oversee complaints related to pain management—handles such complaints:

1. The Board receives the complaint and completes the intake process within five days of receiving it
2. The intake process involves a designated Intake Officer who determines if the complaint falls under the Board’s jurisdiction
3. If the complaint is within the Board’s purview, an investigator will review the complaint, contact the complainant, and speak with the provider who is the subject of the complaint
4. The investigator (or a medical consultant, if the case involves quality of care concerns) writes a report, which a Supervisor then reviews
5. The complaint may be dismissed at this point by the Executive Director
6. If the complaint moves further, the  Staff Investigational Review Committee (SIRC) may recommend sanctions or dismissal of the case
7. Depending on the SIRC’s recommendation, the provider may see their case dismissed, sign a consent agreement, or be referred for a formal hearing
8. The provider may request a rehearing of any adverse disciplinary ruling following a hearing
9. The provider may exhaust their right to request a rehearing and judicial review (which may lead all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court)

Many regulatory procedures, including these, make up a flow chart that can divert in different directions depending on numerous variables. These variables create substantial uncertainty, even for experienced medical providers.

While we may not be able to guarantee how your case will unfold, we can guarantee that we are equipped to handle whatever comes, and you will gain the benefit of preparation by association.

What Clinicians Stand to Lose from Adverse Disciplinary Action (or Other License-Related Problems)

What is on the line depends on the nature of the problem you face.

If you are blindsided by a misconduct allegation, you might face license suspension, revocation, and a host of other near-immediate and devastating disciplinary actions.

If you have made an administrative misstep—like allowing your license to lapse—you might face potential discipline. You may also suffer financial and reputational harm if you are unable to practice due to an inactive license.

Whatever the problem is, there are almost certainly adverse consequences. Our mission will be to help you avoid or mitigate those circumstances to the greatest degree possible.

The LLF National Law Firm Professional License Defense Team Takes the Pain Out of These High-Stakes Matters

The LLF National Law Firm Professional License Defense Team is proud to serve providers throughout Arizona. Whether your primary means of helping patients is physical, prescriptive, psychological, or of another nature, your mission to heal is our concern.

We understand how stigma around pain management continues to cause harm to honest providers and their patients. We also know how heavy the administrative burden weighs on providers, including those who lose sight of those demands while focused on patients’ pain. ‘

We also know that providers make mistakes, and believe they should not see their reputations and careers shredded because of those mistakes.

From trustworthy advice to legal services and moral support, we provide the comprehensive representation you deserve.

When you need an Arizona professional license defense, call the LLF National Law Firm Professional License Defense Team today at 888-535-3686 or contact us online.