Medicare Rule Highlights Key Issue In Opioid Crisis: How To Limit Drugs While Ensuring Access For Patients In Pain
The proposal, which is expected to be approved early next month, would limit Medicare coverage for longterm high-dose prescriptions. Critics say the move will leave patients who need help with pain management scrambling. In other news on the epidemic: how the crisis has affected the workforce; a mobile wound-tending unit; curbing opioid use through insurance companies; suicides; and more.
The New York Times:
Medicare Is Cracking Down On Opioids. Doctors Fear Pain Patients Will Suffer.
Medicare officials thought they had finally figured out how to do their part to fix the troubling problem of opioids being overprescribed to the old and disabled: In 2016, a staggering one in three of 43.6 million beneficiaries of the federal health insurance program had been prescribed the painkillers. Medicare, they decided, would now refuse to pay for long-term, high-dose prescriptions; a rule to that effect is expected to be approved on April 2. Some medical experts have praised the regulation as a check on addiction. (Hoffman, 3/27)
The Hill:
Opioid Crisis Has Cost US Roughly 1M Workers, $702B: Study
The U.S. economy has lost close to 1 million workers and $702 billion due to opioid addiction, according to a study released Tuesday. The American Action Forum (AAF), a right-leaning think tank, analyzed the impact of the opioid epidemic on U.S. labor force participation and output between 1999 and 2015. The group applied findings from previous studies on the economic impact of opioid addiction to data tracking the size of the U.S. workforce and gross domestic product (GDP). (Sylvan, 3/27)
NPR:
Amid Opioid Crisis, One Group Brings Injection Wound Care To The Patients In Philadelphia
Sheila Dhand treats a lot of people who might not step foot in a health clinic or hospital — until an emergency. "People don't want to show just anybody their wound," Dhand says. "A lot of time when talking about wounds, we're talking about drug use. And those things are so taboo." Dhand is a wound care nurse with Prevention Point, a nonprofit organization that provides addiction, health and harm reduction services in Philadelphia. Her job involves going out in a mobile-wound-care-van where she tends to skin and soft-tissue infections that often result from injecting drugs. (Gordon, 3/28)
The Hill:
Cigna Says It Has Reduced Customers Use Of Opioids By 25 Percent
Cigna has reduced the amount of opioids its customers use by 25 percent, the health insurer announced Wednesday. In May 2016, Cigna, one of the country’s largest health insurers, began identifying measures it could implement to try to curb the opioid epidemic. One of its efforts included decreasing opioid use 25 percent by 2019, a goal the company announced it has already met. (Roubein, 3/28)
Kaiser Health News:
Difficult To Measure Rate Of Suicide Among Deaths From Opioid Overdoses
Mady Ohlman was 22 on the evening some years ago when she stood in a friend’s bathroom looking down at the sink. “I had set up a bunch of needles filled with heroin because I wanted to just do them back-to-back-to-back,” Ohlman recalled. She doesn’t remember how many she injected before collapsing, or how long she lay drugged-out on the floor. “But I remember being pissed because I could still get up, you know?” (Bebinger, 3/28)
New Hampshire Public Radio:
Sununu Looks To Expand Workplace Drug Recovery Efforts Beyond N.H. Borders
The effort, called “Recovery Friendly Workplace,” is aimed at getting the private sector involved in combating the opioid crisis. Businesses can apply to the program to be certified as recovery friendly. That means they offer certain training to managers and support for employees struggling with substance abuse. (Greene, 3/27)
Wyoming Public Radio:
New Report Shows Opioid Abuse In Wyoming Same As National Rate
A new report by the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center shows that opioid abuse in the state is following the same rising trends as the rest of the nation, but isn’t seeing the skyrocketing rates of Appalachia and New England. (Edwards, 3/27)
Cincinnati Enquirer:
Catholic Health System Says Yes To Needle Exchange, No To Condoms
Needles will be available. Condoms won't. That's the plan for two anticipated needle exchanges in Northern Kentucky, despite the tradition of giving away condoms at needle exchanges to help fight infectious diseases. (DeMio, 3/27)
