Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
After my posts last week it is clear there’s a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about the CDC’s opioid and chronic pain guidelines. At MCM we take the old-school approach to these things; we focus on the facts. So, here … Continue reading The CDC’s Opioids for Chronic Pain Guidelines; Myths and facts
Read More...Several commenters purporting to be chronic pain patients responded to my post about the AMA’s bemoaning CDC’s opioid guidelines. Their stories were tragic; heartfelt; full of pain, suffering, and grief. All decried the CDC’s guidelines as wildly misplaced, directly responsible … Continue reading The scammers fighting CDC’s opioid guidelines
Read More...There’s still lots of money in the peddling of opioids, and lots of misinformation out there about opioid control efforts going too far. Correlated? You tell me. The American Medical Association sent a letter to the CDC claiming “the nation … Continue reading The prescription opioid crisis is far from over
Read More...Two members of the Perdue family, the folks who made tens of billions of dollars addicting patients to dangerous drugs, testified before Congress yesterday. Both averred there was nothing they could have done to avoid/prevent the damage their company did. … Continue reading Opioid deaths up…Perdue family completely blameless
Read More...Three news items hit the desk, ranging from bad to awful. More than 73,000 of us died of drug overdoses in the 12 months ending February, 2020. That’s four thousand more deaths than the previous year. (note graph below is … Continue reading Opioids – Deaths up, Sacklers likely to escape justice
Read More...myMatrixx released it’s annual Drug Trend Report yesterday; there’s a lot of good news – and a few trends that bear close attention. The good stuff (lots more in the report itself) drug costs per patient decreased by 2.4% despite … Continue reading Work comp drug trends – costs and opioid use down, physician dispensers still a big problem
Read More...Last month RIMS announced its annual awards; one of the recipients is the risk manager for Cardinal Health, another has a similar role at McKesson. Awarding awards for excellence in risk management to two individuals at companies with huge liabilities … Continue reading RIMS, opioids, and awards to drug distributors’ risk managers
Read More...Dr Vennela Thumula led off a panel discussing the latest research on changes in opioid prescribing in workers’ comp. Many factors have contributed to the decline, PDMPs, changes in prescribing guidelines and enforcement via legislation, public education and workers’ comp … Continue reading Opioids in workers’ compensation – what’s the latest research and what can you do
Read More...Today’s WorkCompCentral arrived with William Rabb’s report on the use of opioids by workers’ comp patients in Louisiana. [subscription required] A few notable findings: Louisiana work comp patients get more opioids, and they get them for longer periods of time … Continue reading Time for an effective workers’ comp opioid solution for Louisiana
Read More...Two seemingly-unrelated papers hit the inbox yesterday; CWCI’s just-completed analysis of opioid usage in the Golden State, and NCCI’s report on 2019 workers’ comp financials. The key takeaways from NCCI’s report include: Premiums are expected to drop 10 percent in … Continue reading Opioids and work comp premiums
Read More...