Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Doctors Have Swung The Pendulum Too Far And Are Under Prescribing Painkillers To Needy Patients, Experts Warn
Stat: The Authors Of The CDC’s Opioid Guidelines Say They’ve Been Misapplied
The authors of influential federal guidelines for opioid prescriptions for chronic pain said Wednesday that doctors and others in the health care system had wrongly implemented their recommendations and cut off patients who should have received pain medication. “Unfortunately, some policies and practices purportedly derived from the guideline have in fact been inconsistent with, and often go beyond, its recommendations,” the researchers wrote in a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Joseph and Silverman, 4/24)
USA Today: CDC: Doctors Were Too Cautious About Opioid Pain Pill Prescribing
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in new guidance for opioid prescribing, said many physicians were guilty of a "misapplication" of 2016 guidelines that clamped down on the use of opioids. The new guidelines, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was the latest federal acknowledgement that many physicians' responses to the opioid crisis went too far. Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb, a physician, spoke out last July about the impact the opioid crisis response had on pain patients when he called for development of more options. (O'Donnell and Alltucker, 4/24)
The Associated Press: Feds Intend To Sue Tennessee Lawmaker Over Pain Clinics
Federal prosecutors said this week they intend to file a lawsuit against a Tennessee state senator and other co-owners of a now-shuttered pain clinic company. Court filings said Comprehensive Pain Specialists, which was based in Tennessee and once operated in 12 states, defrauded the government of millions of dollars by submitting claims for unnecessary procedures and falsifying documents. (Loller, 4/24)
The Center for Investigative Reporting: Rehab Patients' Unpaid Work For Big Companies Likely Illegal
A nationally renowned drug rehab program in Texas and Louisiana has sent patients struggling with addiction to work for free for some of the biggest companies in America, likely in violation of federal labor law. The Cenikor Foundation has dispatched tens of thousands of patients to work without pay at more than 300 for-profit companies over the years. In the name of rehabilitation, patients have moved boxes in a sweltering warehouse for Walmart, built an oil platform for Shell and worked at an Exxon refinery along the Mississippi River. (4/24)
