Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
CompPharma’s Tenth Annual Survey of Prescription Drug Management in Worker’s Comp is available for download here. There are two key takeaways from this year’s Survey; the continued decline in drug costs for programs managed by PBMs, and the industry’s sophistication, knowledge, … Continue reading Survey of Prescription Drug Management in Work Comp – results are in
Read More...The profiteering plunderers of the workers’ comp system have moved into the Keystone State, proffering their repackaged drug get-rich-quick scheme for physicians treating workers’ comp claimants. Patient safety? Hah! Conflict of interest? So what! Higher taxes? Screw ’em! Alas, there’s … Continue reading Pennsylvania’s drug problem
Read More...The big auto insurer’s civil suit against AHCS subsidiary Prescription Partners is comprehensive, thorough, and very, very persuasive. Allstate is demanding a return of all monies paid to Prescription Partners, and a ruling preventing PP from billing Allstate going forward. … Continue reading The Allstate – Prescription Partners suit; the details…
Read More...Yesterday’s WCRI report on physician dispensing in Georgia post-reform is stuffed with insights into physician behavior and motivators thereof. In April 2011, the Peach State capped the price of physician-dispensed repackaged drugs at the AWP of the original, non-repackaged drug, … Continue reading Why do docs dispense meds to work comp patients?
Read More...A workers’ comp claim with no opioid scripts costs about $13,000. Those with long-acting opioids like Oxycontin? $117,000. This and other factoids were reported in yesterday’s NYTimes in a revealing piece by Barry Meier; you may recall Meier was responsible … Continue reading The true cost of opioids
Read More...$1.7 billion in workers’ comp drug costs are for drugs dispensed by physicians. Why don’t the big retail pharmacies care about physician dispensing in workers’ comp? Why isn’t Walgreens, and CVS, and Rite-Aid, and Medicine Shoppe up in arms about … Continue reading Pharmacies’ self interest v silos v ignorance
Read More...I attended and was privileged to speak at the Hawai’i Rx Drug Summit, held yesterday in Honolulu. Focused on opioids and drug controls but with a heavy emphasis on physician dispensing of drugs, the Summit also featured a random guy videotaping … Continue reading Hawai’ian Drug Summit – weird goings on…
Read More...NCCI’s conference is perhaps the best-produced workers comp conference I’ve attended. Great support for speakers (thanks Mona Carter, Peter Burton, Lisa Lancelotti, Linda Simmonds et al), well run, tightly organized, and substantive as well. Several single-state payers I spoke with at the … Continue reading Random observations from NCCI
Read More...Day One is concluding with a discussion of legislative and regulatory trends, a panel of legislators and then your devoted author discussing “Thieves, Profiteers, and Enablers”; the bad actors infesting workers comp. Peter Burton led off with his discussion of … Continue reading NCCI’s regulatory and legislative update
Read More...Workers’ comp pharmacy benefit management firms devote significant resources to research, much of which is published in their annual drug trend reports. Today we focus on PMSI’s just-released report… The big news – narcotic utilization in the first year of the … Continue reading Workers’ comp drug trends – good news at last, Part 2
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