Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Heavy Painkiller Use, Abuse Remains Serious Problem For Medicare Patients, Report Finds
ProPublica: ‘Extreme’ Use Of Painkillers And Doctor Shopping Plague Medicare, New Report Says
In Washington, D.C., a Medicare beneficiary filled prescriptions for 2,330 pills of oxycodone, hydromorphone and morphine in a single month last year — written by just one of the 42 health providers who prescribed the person such drugs... These are among the examples cited in a sobering new report released today by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (Ornstein, 7/13)
The Washington Post: Half A Million Medicare Recipients Were Prescribed Too Many Opioid Drugs Last Year
Nearly 70,000 people on Medicare's drug plan received “extreme” amounts of narcotic painkillers in 2016 and more than 22,000 others appeared to be “doctor shopping” for drugs, patterns that put both groups “at serious risk of opioid misuse or overdose,” a government watchdog reported Thursday. (Bernstein, 7/13)
Stat: Feds Identify Prescribers Giving Too Many Opioids To Part D Beneficiaries
In the latest bid to stem the opioid epidemic, investigators at the Department of Health and Human Services have identified excessive prescribing patterns in Medicare Part D involving hundreds of doctors and plan to work with law enforcement authorities to curtail the practice. In a new report, the HHS Office of Inspector General found that 401 prescribers last year wrote more than 256,200 prescriptions for nearly 90,000 Part D beneficiaries who were deemed to be at serious risk because they received “extreme” amounts of opioids or appeared to be doctor shopping. (Silverman, 7/13)
In other news on the crisis —
The New York Times: A Tide Of Opioid-Dependent Newborns Forces Doctors To Rethink Treatment
Just 24 hours old, Jay’la Cy’anne Clay already was having a rough day. Convulsions rocked her tiny body as she lay under warming lights in the nursery of the Baptist Health Richmond hospital. She vomited and made strange, high-pitched cries. The infant was going through opioid withdrawal. (Saint Louis, 7/13)
Los Angeles Times: The U.S. Should Rethink Its Entire Approach To Painkillers And The People Addicted To Them, Panel Urges
To reverse a still-spiraling American crisis fueled by prescription narcotic drugs, a panel of experts advising the federal government has recommended sweeping changes in the ways that physicians treat pain, their patients cope with pain, and government and private insurers support the care of people living with chronic pain. (Healy, 7/13)
