Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
DEA Officials Stonewalled Efforts To Battle Opioid Epidemic, Investigation Finds
The Washington Post: Investigation: The DEA Slowed Enforcement While The Opioid Epidemic Grew Out Of Control
A decade ago, the Drug Enforcement Administration launched an aggressive campaign to curb a rising opioid epidemic that was claiming thousands of American lives each year. The DEA began to target wholesale companies that distributed hundreds of millions of highly addictive pills to the corrupt pharmacies and pill mills that illegally sold the drugs for street use. Leading the campaign was the agency’s Office of Diversion Control, whose investigators around the country began filing civil cases against the distributors, issuing orders to immediately suspend the flow of drugs and generating large fines. But the industry fought back. (Bernstein and Higham, 10/22)
The Washington Post: How Drugs Intended For Patients Ended Up In The Hands Of Illegal Users: ‘No One Was Doing Their Job’
For 10 years, the government waged a behind-the-scenes war against pharmaceutical companies that hardly anyone knows: wholesale distributors of prescription narcotics that ship drugs from manufacturers to consumers. The Drug Enforcement Administration targeted these middlemen for a simple reason. If the agency could force the companies to police their own drug shipments, it could keep millions of pills out of the hands of abusers and dealers. That would be much more effective than fighting “diversion” of legal painkillers at each drugstore and pain clinic. (Bernstein, Fallis and Higham, 10/22)
In other news from the opioid crisis —
The Wall Street Journal: Cigna Ends Preauthorization For Medication To Treat Opioid Addiction
Health insurer Cigna Corp. will stop requiring that patients and doctors jump through extra hoops known as prior authorization to receive coverage of a medication to treat opioid addiction, under a settlement with New York state’s Attorney General, the attorney general’s office said. (Whalen and Wilde Mathews, 10/21)
The Associated Press: Insurer Cigna Eases Rules For Opioid Addiction Medication
The health insurer Cigna has agreed to end a policy that required physicians to fill out extra paperwork before they could give patients a drug used to treat opioid addiction. The move announced Friday comes after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman raised questions about whether Cigna’s requirement created unnecessary treatment delays. (10/21)
WABE: GBI Expands Morgue To Handle Drug Overdose Death Increase
More than 1,200 people in Georgia died of a drug overdose in 2014, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To keep up with the increase in these cases, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Medical Examiner's office in south DeKalb County is spending $4.5 million to expand its morgue and office space. (Shamma, 10/20)
