The scope of our practice at Opioid Management Group (OMG) is largely limited to opioid addictions and the management of chronic pain patients who require opioid medications. The only exceptions are patients with other addictions (alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, etc.).
Addiction Services
OMG is headed by Simon Feng MD, an addiction specialist accredited by the International Association of Addiction Medicine (ISAM). Beyond his work at OMG, Dr. Feng is also the medical director of a methadone clinic in Greenwood IN, New Vista Outpatient Recovery Center.
Our addiction side of the practice follows evidence-based Medication-Assisted Treatment, mostly utilizing buprenorphine products. We have occasional patients on vivitrol. Since Dr. Feng runs a methadone clinic, we have ready access to refer patients needing a higher level of service to methadone therapy should they fail other therapies.
Chronic Pain Services
All our chronic pain patients are referred to us by other medical offices. We have never advertised to the general public and require prospective pain patients to be referred by their primary care provider. We are not a cash practice and accept most insurances. Dr. Feng has over a decade of experience managing opioid prescriptions. Prior to specializing in addiction medicine, his primary care practice focused on his special interest in opioid monitoring.
Our management of chronic pain patients is limited to medication management. Most pain clinics pressure patients into accepting costly and invasive procedures, such as epidural steroid injections, radio-frequency nerve ablations, spinal cord stimulators, and intrathecal pain pumps. We do not perform any interventional procedures, mostly because we have never been convinced these procedures offer much long-term benefit for most patients.
At OMG, our main focus is not merely on pain relief but also on safety. Our management is guided by strict protocols that far exceed state requirements for opioid prescriptions. For instance, Indiana state law require PMDP databases be checked at least once a year; we consult the state PDMP every single visit. Our toxicology practices follow our drug testing protocol. We also reconcile pill counts at every visit. We follow all state and federal laws on opioid prescribing.
Most of our pain patients are maintained on low to moderate doses of opioids (see attached data), usually under 60 MME. We rarely initiate patients on chronic opioid therapy; they come to us already having been on opioids.
We have strict policies regarding the concurrent use of sedative agents like benzodiazepines or alcohol. We prescribe Narcan to patients following recommendations from the Surgeon General, CDC, and Department of Health & Human Services.
As an addiction specialty clinic, at OMG, we are uniquely positioned to monitor for, and manage, aberrant behaviors in chronic pain patients on opioids. We are able to identify, mitigate, and manage patients vulnerable to developing opioid use disorders.
Training
Providers at OMG regularly participate in Continuing Medical Education in both addiction and pain management areas every year. Every nurse practitioner at Opioid Management is carefully trained for about 4 weeks before seeing patients independently. All staff are trained to be compliant with 42CFR Part 2 as well as with HIPPA requirements. All charting is on electronic health records; all scripts are sent electronically. We pride ourselves on the highest ethical standards.