LIABILITY ISSUES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF PAIN

Liability issues associated with pain management are important to heal th-care providers, patients pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers of pain-management devices, health-care payors, and society at large. Th is article discuss five specific legal liability concerns: (a) health- care providers' liability to patients and/or exposure to professional discipline for inappropriate pain management, (b) health-care provider s' liability to third parties for injury caused by patients treated fo r pain, (c) the legal distinction between pain management and euthanas ia or physician-assisted suicide, (d) health-care payors' liability to patients for cost-containment decisions that impact on pain managemen t, and (e) manufacturers' and health-care providers' liability for the risks and side effects of prescription drugs and pain-management devi ces.