What the NOPAIN Act Means for Surgery Patients

If you’re a Medicare patient facing outpatient surgery, the NOPAIN Act makes it easier for your hospital or surgery center to give you non-opioid pain relief — like cold and compression — instead of leaning on narcotics. Medicare now pays the facility separately for those non-opioid options, so cost is less of a reason to skip them. The simplest thing you can do with that: ask your surgeon about non-opioid options before your procedure.

Here’s what the Act does and doesn’t mean for you, in plain terms.

What actually changed

The NOPAIN Act (“Non-Opioids Prevent Addiction in the Nation”) is a Medicare rule. Before it, when a surgery center wanted to use a non-opioid pain option, the cost was buried in the single payment for your procedure — so the center absorbed it, and the easier path was an opioid prescription.

Now Medicare pays the facility separately for qualifying non-opioid options used during outpatient surgery, without cutting the payment for the surgery itself.^[1] That removes a quiet reason non-opioid tools got skipped. The rule is in effect through the end of 2027.^[1-1]

What it means for you — honestly

A few things worth being clear about, because it’s easy to read more into a policy than it says:

• It helps at the surgery center, during outpatient surgery. The payment goes to the hospital or ASC for options used in that setting. It’s not a blanket statement that everything is now free.
• It’s a Medicare rule. It applies to Medicare patients in hospital outpatient departments and ambulatory surgery centers. Your standard 20% coinsurance can still apply.^[1-2]
• It doesn’t mean a home rental is automatically covered. If you use a cold-and-compression machine at home during recovery, that follows separate rules — often a prescription-based or rental path. Ask about the specifics.

What it does do is tilt the playing field toward the non-opioid options a lot of surgeons already prefer — so it’s a good moment to have the conversation.

The non-opioid options to ask about

You don’t need to memorize the medicine. You just need to know these exist so you can ask:

Option	What it is
Nerve blocks / regional anesthesia	Targeted numbing around the surgical area.
Non-opioid medications	Like acetaminophen and anti-inflammatories, often on a schedule.
Cold and compression	A drug-free machine that manages swelling and pain, and that many patients keep using at home in the first weeks. As of January 2026, one such system (Game Ready) is on the NOPAIN Act’s qualifying list.[2]

Fewer opioids in the house after surgery is good for you and for everyone around you — and in a survey of 2,060 WRS Group patients, 70% said they used fewer opioids during recovery.^[3]

How to bring it up with your surgeon

The easiest version: at your pre-op visit, ask “What’s the plan to manage my pain, and can we lean on non-opioid options?” If you want a little more structure, we put together a short guide — how to ask your surgeon about cold compression therapy → — with the exact questions to bring.

Where WRS Group fits

WRS Group provides Game Ready cold and compression to surgical patients, with 60,000 patients treated. If you’d like help sorting out non-opioid options for your recovery, you can reach out to WRS Group directly.

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Frequently asked questions

Does the NOPAIN Act mean my surgery pain relief is free?
No. It means Medicare pays your hospital or surgery center separately for qualifying non-opioid options used during outpatient surgery, so cost is less of a barrier to offering them. Your standard 20% Part B coinsurance can still apply.^[1-3]

Does it cover a cold therapy machine I use at home?
Not directly — the Act’s payment is for the outpatient surgical setting. Home use follows separate rules, often a prescription or rental path. Ask your provider about your specific situation.

What non-opioid options should I ask my surgeon about?
Nerve blocks or regional anesthesia, non-opioid medications, and cold with compression. Your surgeon will tailor the plan to your procedure.

Is Game Ready part of this?
Yes — as of January 1, 2026, the Game Ready GRPro 2.1 cold and compression system is on the NOPAIN Act’s list of qualifying non-opioid products for outpatient surgery.^[2-1]

When does the NOPAIN Act expire?
It’s currently in effect through December 31, 2027.^[1-4]

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References

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1. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. CY 2025 / CY 2026 Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment System Final Rule. https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/cy-2025-medicare-hospital-outpatient-prospective-payment-system-ambulatory-surgical-center-payment↩︎↩︎↩︎↩︎↩︎
2. Avanos Medical. NOPAIN Act & Avanos. https://avanos.com/resources/nopain-act-and-avanos/↩︎↩︎
3. WRS Cold Compression Scores — patient-reported outcomes survey, n = 2,060 (WRS Group internal data, 2026).↩︎