(Yicai Global) Sept. 28 -- Attorneys general of 35 US states, Washington DC and the US territory of Puerto Rico recently wrote a joint letter calling on insurance companies to take active measures to evaluate and revise their underwriting to encourage doctors to first use non-medicinal therapies such as acupuncture when treating chronic pain triggered by non-cancer factors, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. 

The letter, drafted Sept. 18 and published on the website of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), was sent to America's Health Insurance Plans, representing 1,300 member companies covering more than 200 million Americans.

When patients seek treatment for disease-triggered chronic pain, doctors are encouraged to explore and prescribe effective non-opioid medications as well as physical therapies such as acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic care, the open letter stated.

America's Health Insurance Plans replied to NAAG that they are exploring and strengthening use of non-medication therapies which have been proved in pain relief, Cathryn Donaldson, director of communications of the insurers' association, said Sept. 26.

For many patients, therapies such as acupuncture, yoga and exercise are effective first-line treatment. If patients need to they can shift to other medications and therapies, Donaldson said.

Organizations such as the US Alliance for Professional Acupuncture Safety, the US Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Association and the US TCM Society issued a report on Sept. 26 saying that acupuncture safely and effectively alleviates pain, and first-line treatment with the needle therapy will ameliorate opioid addiction and excess use of such drugs in the US. Acupuncture is effective for treating various types of discomfort, such as back, neck and shoulder pain, and chronic headache and osteoarthritis. Animal and human trials show that acupuncture can release endogenous opioid substances.

Opioid overdoses kill 91 Americans every day, with more than half these deaths involving prescriptions, official figures show. The national government will beef up enforcement and stiffen border controls to curb opioid addiction and excessive use in the country, US President Donald Trump said last month.