contact the US CONGRESSPERSONS who sit on the Committee for Government Oversight and Reform, and demand they take action.

On January 20, 2021, a letter with attachments was delivered by email to the Acting Director and Senior Staff of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ.)  The letter requests AHRQ to immediately withdraw its “Comparative Outcomes Review 240” for treatment of acute pain.  Grounds for the request are:

  • Clear evidence of unjustified anti-opioid bias by writers of the Review, and
  • Gross fatal errors of methodology which invalidate the Review as an input to ongoing efforts to revise and expand 2016 CDC guidelines on prescription of opioids to adults with chronic non-cancer pain. 

It now appears that AHRQ is fully aware of the errors noted above and has no intention of responding to demands for correction of its malfeasance and fraud.  Thus it may be necessary for the US House Government Oversight and Reform Committee to direct AHRQ to withdraw and rewrite or repudiate the Review.  

Such an action has precedents.  In the Fall of 2015, the Oversight Committee received a complaint from the Washington Legal Foundation, concerning inadequate public review and comment on the proposed CDC guidelines.  They directed CDC to call for comments on the draft Guidelines in a 60-day Federal Register announcement rather than the three days originally allocated.

Here is where you come in

At the bottom of this page, you will find contact data for telephoning individual members of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee.  Those who wish to involve the Committee in corrective action may telephone any or all of the Congressional offices of Committee members.  It is very doubtful that Representatives actually see anything you leave in their contact portals online.  Short, focused telephone calls are harder to ignore. 

If you reach a staffer at a Congressional office, you might offer the following information:

  1. Identify yourself and provide a call-back number. If you have medical professional qualifications, then state them (i.e. “I am a board certified physician” or “I am a former nursing professional now disabled by agonizing pain.”
  2. If you are a resident of the Representative’s US State, say so (you don’t have to be a constituent to make your input).
  3. Tell the staffer that you want to report fraud and abuse to the Representative and to the House Congressional Oversight and Reform Committee.
  4. “I want the Committee to demand corrective action from the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, in the same way it did in 2015 when it directed CDC to re-open its proposed Opioid Guidelines to extended public review.”
  5. “AHRQ published a Comparative Outcomes Review on treatment of acute pain in December 2020.  The Review is deliberately biased against the only therapies that work, deeply flawed by errors of scientific method, and outright fraudulent in its conclusions.  This Review must be withdrawn for independent review and possible permanent repudiation.”
  6. Thank the staffer for their time.  Ask “May I expect a callback from a member of the Representative’s staff?”

This is an opportunity to be heard, despite the lies being shouted by anti-opioid fringe element crazies like PROP and Shatterproof.  It is time for you to speak up!

Use arrows at the bottom of the documents to tab through the pages.

AHRQ-Cover-Letter-Jan-20-2021.docx

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AHRQ-Methodological-Errors-Final-Jan-2021.docx

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Comments-on-AHRQ-Review-for-Acute-Pain-September-2020.docx

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Telephone Contact Data: