Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Opioid Crisis Pushes Pain Patients 'To The Brink,' Causes Doctors To Rethink Pain Management
The Bend Bulletin: Opioid Crisis: Pain Patients Pushed To The Brink; Overdose Prevention Efforts Have Had Unintended — And Dire — Consequences
Three weeks after her last appointment, Sonja Mae Jonsson got a call from her doctor’s office in Waldport, telling her she needed to come in. Her urine drug screen had tested positive for a drug she hadn’t been prescribed. The doctor would no longer prescribe her any pain medication. Linda Jonsson, a registered nurse, had taken over her daughter’s care after a traumatic brain injury when she was 32, and carefully monitored her daughter’s medications. She pleaded with the clinic they had made a mistake. Without the pain medications, they would be condemning her daughter to a life of pain. But doctors had seen too many patients become addicted to painkillers and wind up overdosing. They were cutting her off. (Hawryluk, 6/2)
Vox: The Opioid Crisis Changed How Doctors Think About Pain
This town on the eastern border of Kentucky has 3,150 residents, one hotel, one gas station, one fire station — and about 50 opiate overdoses each month. On the first weekend of each month, when public benefits like disability get paid out, the local fire chief estimates the city sees about half a million dollars in drug sales. The area is poor — 29 percent of county residents live in poverty, and, amid the retreat of the coal industry, the unemployment rate was 12.2 percent when I visited last August— and those selling pills are not always who you’d expect. (Kliff, 6/5)
Columbus Dispatch: Doctors, Cardinal Health Included In Cities' Lawsuits Over Opioid Epidemic
Going further than last week’s state lawsuit against drug makers, the cities of Dayton and Lorain also sued the companies and doctors Monday who spread opioids that made Ohio the drug overdose capital of America. “This case is about one thing: corporate greed. Defendants put their desire for profits above the health and well-being of the City of Dayton consumers,” says the opening line of the 233-page lawsuit for Dayton. (Johnson, 6/5)
The Baltimore Sun: Growing Drug Use And Changing Drugs Laws Pose Challenges For Employers
With drug use among workers appearing to be on the rise, more employers across Maryland and the nation may face such decisions. Those who track workplace drug use say the problem is worsening because of the nationwide opioid epidemic, the loosening of marijuana laws in many states, including Maryland, and a resurgence of cocaine. An index maintained by Quest Diagnostics, one of the nation's largest workforce testing labs with 10 million samples annually, shows that positive results among workers last year hit a 12-year high, encompassing a spectrum of illicit drugs, including heroin, marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamines. (Cohn, 6/5)
The Wall Street Journal: Manhattan Doctor Faces Prescription Drug Charges
A Manhattan family doctor was arrested Monday on accusations he wrote thousands of prescriptions for oxycodone without a legitimate medical purpose. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged Martin Tesher, 81 years old, with illegally distributing a controlled substance. From June 2012 through January 2017, Dr. Tesher wrote more than 14,000 oxycodone prescriptions, totaling more than 2.2 million pills, prosecutors said. (Ramey, 6/5)
