Multidisciplinary pain clinics were common twenty years ago. While the clinic I went through was helpful for fellow patients with musculoskeletal pain, I found the modalities I learned less helpful for genetic autoimmune disease. While insurance absolutely should pay for clinics, I would caution readers not to treat multimodal pain management and opioid pain medication as an either/or proposition.

As a patient with severe refractory IC/BPS, with no pain medication I would be like the guy in the iron lung, except with a toilet. I would not have been able to attend a multidisciplinary pain clinic, nor indeed would I be able to go anywhere at all.