Pain Management
The Florida Division of Workers Compensation this month published a notice in the Florida Administrative Register announcing plans to review physician dispensing rules.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and AbbVie Inc.s Allergan unit on Tuesday reached a $58 million settlement with the city of San Francisco just before completion of a trial over claims that they fueled an opioid epidemic in the city.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Tuesday he was investigating whether Walmart improperly filled prescriptions and failed to report suspicious orders when selling opioid drugs.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday gave two doctors found guilty of misusing their licenses in the midst of the U.S. opioid epidemic to write thousands of prescriptions for addictive pain medications another chance to challenge their convictions.
The Delaware Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a determination that an injured workers prescribed narcotic pain medications were no longer compensable.
Payments for dermatological agents continue to increase while payments for opioids continue to decline, according to a report released Thursday by the Workers Compensation Research Institute.
The average medical cost-per-claim for injured workers with lower back pain who were treated exclusively by a chiropractor was 61% less than for those who received no chiropractic treatment, according to a new report.
A group of Florida workers compensation insurers is challenging the legitimacy of a state policy they claim improperly requires them to authorize physicians and other providers to dispense medications to injured workers.
Fewer injured workers are receiving opioids compared with previous years, and it appears opioid drugs are being replaced with nonopioid pain medications and nonpharmacologic treatments like physical therapy, according to a WCRI study.
Individuals using opioids have difficulty finding a physician willing to take them on as a patient, and workers comp patients likely face similar barriers to care, experts say.
Medical marijuana and cannabinoid products are increasingly being touted as a pain management alternative for injured workers, but new studies have cast doubts on political arguments that access to the Schedule I drug will mitigate the effects of the opioid crisis, experts say.
Injured workers who lose their opioid prescriptions are engaging attorneys to try to maintain access to the drugs, according to legal experts.
While the overall use of opioids among injured workers is trending downward due to the combined efforts of doctors, insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and regulators, older claims remain troublesome, experts say.
Workers compensation insurers are generally required to cover any medical care that is “reasonable and necessary,” and implanted medical devices are no exception, but some states have workers compensation statutes that specifically exclude experimental treatments.
Ineffective medical devices can trigger significant increases in the cost of a workers compensation claim, but insurers have no recourse but to pay for the devices in most instances, experts say.
Workers compensation payments in all drug categories — including opioids — dropped in 25 of 27 states studied by the Workers Compensation Research Institute over the last three years, and dermatological agents are making up a larger percentage of the drug spend in many states.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted 267-165 on an amendment that aims to restrict the Department of Justice from interfering with the states that have legalized marijuana.
Prescription drug utilization decreased across all drug categories in two states that have recently adopted Official Disability Guidelines Workers Compensation Drug Formulary, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc.
The New York Workers’ Compensation Board on Wednesday formally adopted its drug formulary and prescribing rules for injured workers, set to go into effect Jan. 5, 2020.
Drugs intended to help injured workers manage depression and other mental health conditions while recovering could be prolonging and increasing the cost of workers compensation claims.
Drug-free claims lead the pack when it comes to successful closure rates in workers compensation, according to a recent study.
The Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation announced Friday it will begin to phase out coverage for OxyContin and its generic forms by the end of the year, beginning June 1.
The landscape for the use of medical marijuana and cannabinoids is changing in workers compensation, and it’s likely that more insurers will be required to pay for this in the near future, experts say.