The Chronic Pain Experience Engagement

Human-Centered Design (HCD) is the process CMS uses to understand the people for which we are writing policies and creating programs and services. At the center of CMS’ HCD process is participatory design, where we work directly with clinicians, patients, third-party vendors, federal partners, and CMS employees to collaboratively understand the context of their work and engagement with CMS, as well as the solutions we are creating to support them. Findings are used to inform CMS’s policymaking and implementation processes.

In late 2019,CMS launched a Chronic Pain Stakeholder Engagement, which focused on understanding more about access to covered care and services for people with chronic pain. We used qualitative research methods and the human-centered design process to understand and visualize the customer experiences living with, providing care for, and treating people with chronic pain. In addition to direct engagement, CMS leveraged data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The intent of the Chronic Pain Experience Journey Map (PDF) is to highlight the most prominent barriers experienced by people accessing care and the influencers acting on providers, ultimately affecting the person with chronic pain, their quality of care, and their quality of life. In collaboration with our Federal partners, CMS is exploring where opportunities exist to address these issues. We encourage our partners outside of government to also explore where opportunities exist to support those suffering with chronic pain, by addressing the stigmas that affect not only those living with chronic pain, but also those with behavioral health conditions and opioid use disorders.

CMS recognizes the impact of pain across its programs and has identified the importance of effective treatment and management of pain in the CMS Behavioral Health Strategy. This work aligns with the CMS Behavioral Health Strategy, the HHS Overdose Prevention Strategy, and important provisions of the SUPPORT Act that address the treatment of pain.