After years of tightening limits, new federal guidelines are giving doctors greater leeway in prescribing opioids.

Unveiled in November by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the voluntary guidelines update more restrictive advice issued in 2016 -- advice that triggered a regulatory crackdown on opioids at the state and federal level.

Given the history of opioid abuse in the U.S., insurers and claims administrators in the workers’ compensation arena are closely monitoring the situation.

They expect an uptick in opioid prescriptions, particularly for cases of chronic pain. At the same time, they are keeping an eye out for warning signs of addiction and abuse.

‘We as clinical professionals do not want to micromanage every single thing in a claim,’ said Jennifer Cogbill, senior vice president for GBCARE client services at Gallagher Bassett. ‘We want to intervene, though, when it becomes clear that there’s a problem.’