CMS, Non-Opioid Pain Care, and Why the Moment Matters

Pain care is entering a new policy moment. For years, clinicians, hospitals, payers, and public health leaders have been trying to balance two realities at once. Patients need effective pain relief, and healthcare systems need broader options that reduce unnecessary reliance on opioids where clinically appropriate. That balance is now showing up directly in federal payment policy.

CMS has established temporary additional payments for certain non-opioid treatments for pain relief in hospital outpatient departments and ambulatory surgical centers under Section 4135 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. CMS states that these payments apply from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2027 for qualifying products in HOPD and ASC settings.

The policy signal is clear. CMS is creating specific payment pathways for qualifying non-opioid pain relief treatments in outpatient and surgical settings.

Electrome's work sits directly inside this larger healthcare shift. The company's initial commercial focus is non-invasive bioelectric therapy for pain and recovery, supported by FDA cleared therapeutic technology and designed to fit across consumer, provider, and recovery settings.

CDC guidance states that nonopioid therapies are preferred for subacute and chronic pain, and that clinicians should maximize appropriate nonpharmacologic and nonopioid pharmacologic therapies before considering opioids when expected benefits do not outweigh risks. That guidance creates a strong educational context for Electrome's provider program. The strongest companies in healthcare do not just sell into a policy shift. They build the infrastructure that lets patients, providers, retailers, and partners participate in it.