Portland Business Journal, Jan. 26, 2015
Legislation is being prepared in Oregon to encourage safer opioid prescribing practices.
Officials could do so by removing any disincentives to prescribing abuse-deterrent painkillers.
“The concept addresses the idea of patient safety and consumer protection around the use of opioid analgesics and abuse deterrents,” said Dr. David Russo, a pain management specialist with Columbia Pain Management in Hood River. “At least a portion of the problem can be attributed to the drug itself.”
Oregon has the highest rate of nonmedical use of prescription opioids in the U.S.
The legislation, supported by a loose coalition of pain and addiction specialists including Russo, would:
- require insurance carriers to provide coverage for abuse-deterrent opioids as preferred drugs on their formulary.
- require that the cost-sharing for abuse-deterrent opioids not exceed the lowest cost-sharing applied to prescription drugs.
- prohibit an increase in patient cost-sharing.
Massachusetts passed a similar law last year.
“Payers and insurance companies shouldn’t prioritize cost over patient safety,” Russo said. Doctors should also take the abuse-deterrent drugs into consideration as they figure out the best treatment for a patient, he said.
The pharmaceutical industry’s two largest trade groups are calling on the Food and Drug Administration not to approve generic equivalents of older, non-abuse-resistant painkillers if a drug maker has since made improvements to a drug that make it harder to abuse, according to Regulatory Affairs Professional Society.
The FDA last year approved a painkiller called Hysingla, which is difficult to crush, break or dissolve, and, thus, abuse. But the agency didn’t revoke approval of Zohydro, which isn’t abuse-deterrent.
MORE IN THIS SERIES:
Price of Addiction: Opioid abuse hits employers hard in Oregon, nationally, 5/7/15
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Price of Addiction: Hazelden doc testifies in Congress about opioid scourge, 4/23/15
Price of Addiction: Why the new war on drugs could work, 3/27/15
Price of Addiction: How a Hillsboro doctor’s back pain program could reduce painkiller use
Price of Addiction: Is this newly approved pain pill actually smarter?
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