A. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Oklahoma Interventional Pain Management and Treatment Act".

B. As used in this section:

1. "Chronic pain" means a pain state which is subacute, persistent and intractable;

2. "Fluoroscope" means a radiologic instrument equipped with a fluorescent screen on which opaque internal structures can be viewed as moving shadow images formed by the differential transmission of X-rays throughout the body; and

3. "Interventional pain management" means the practice of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain, through the use of such techniques as:

a. ablation of targeted nerves,

b. percutaneous precision needle placement within the spinal column with placement of drugs such as local anesthetics, steroids, analgesics in targeted areas of the spinal column, or

c. surgical techniques, such as laser or endoscopic diskectomy, intrathecal infusion pumps and spinal cord stimulators.

C. It shall be unlawful to practice or offer to practice interventional pain management in this state unless such person has been duly licensed under the provisions of the Oklahoma Allopathic Medical and Surgical Licensure and Supervision Act or the Oklahoma Osteopathic Medicine Act.

D. Nothing in this section shall be construed to forbid the administration of lumbar intra-laminar epidural steroid injections or peripheral nerve blocks by a certified registered nurse anesthetist when requested to do so by a physician and under the supervision of an allopathic or osteopathic physician licensed in this state and under conditions in which timely on-site consultation by such allopathic or osteopathic physician is available.

E. A certified registered nurse anesthetist shall not operate a freestanding pain management facility without direct supervision of a physician who is board-certified in interventional pain management or its equivalent.

Historical Data

Laws 2010, SB 479, c. 67, § 1, emerg. eff. April 9, 2010.