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Based on research conducted at the University of Michigan’s medical center, a group of surgeons developed a strategy to help post-surgical patients from misusing or abusing their prescription painkillers.
Medicare and insurers struggle to oversee a booming business in testing urine samples. In some cases, pain doctors’ lack of follow-through can turn fatal.
In this episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Sarah Jane Tribble of Kaiser Health News discuss some of the under-covered health stories of the past several weeks, including drug price issues, the opioid epidemic and women’s reproductive health.
Following minor surgery, KHN’s consumer columnist sees how easily doctors offer pain pills, fueling epidemic of opioid addiction.
Doctors and pharmacists in Northern California are emulating drug company sales reps with a fresh purpose in mind: They visit medical offices in the hardest-hit counties to change their peers' prescribing habits and curtail the use of painkillers.
With the nation's opioid crisis, urine testing has become a booming business and is especially lucrative for doctors who operate their own labs, a Kaiser Health News investigation finds. And dozens of practitioners have earned "the lion’s share" of their Medicare income exclusively from urine drug screens.
In this episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post discuss the start of open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, legislative efforts on Capitol Hill on taxes and children’s health insurance, and recommendations of the president’s opioid commission.
As more patients receive hospice care at home, some of the powerful, addictive drugs they’re prescribed are ending up in the wrong hands.
One Kentucky program is eyed by other jurisdictions as a way to get addicted parents into recovery and help them care for their children at home.
Some drug courts offer participants a full range of evidence-based treatment, including medication-assisted treatment. Others don't allow addiction medications at all. And some permit just one: Vivitrol.
The $45 billion for opioid treatment in the Senate bill sounds like a lot of money, but an advocate estimates it would provide $1,000 to $2,000 per year for each person in Pennsylvania who might need treatment. Meanwhile, one year of methadone treatment for opioid addiction costs about $4,700 per year,
Dr. Jerome Adams is the health commissioner in Indiana, the home state of Vice President Mike Pence.
Treatment for opioid addiction can be expensive and difficult to coordinate. That might make some people tempted to think they can overcome the addiction on their own. This rarely works.
Report by CDC researchers finds a steady fall in opioid use in recent years, but the rates are still three times higher than in 1999.
Gabapentin, prescribed for epilepsy and nerve damage, is touted by federal health officials as an alternative to opioids for patients. But some are now abusing the drug.
As many as a dozen GOP senators may oppose the Senate majority leader’s Obamacare repeal bill. But the dealmaking is just beginning.
A study finds that nearly 19 percent of people with mental illnesses use prescription drugs, while only 5 percent of other people do.
The North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition has advanced a local shift from a tough-on-drugs approach to harm-reduction philosophy. Other red states signal they may follow suit.
The study also found that the largest percentage of medical coverage claims related to opioid abuse and dependence nationally come from older patients — those ages 51 to 60.
A grass-roots effort to corral Montana's meth crisis hinges on the idea that people who are successful in conquering addiction are uniquely qualified to coach others.
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