Biggest Challenge To Workers Comp Prescription Cost Reform: Profit Motive

States that enacted reforms to rein in the high cost of drugs dispensed by physicians to injured workers are facing an uphill battle as some doctors are finding ways around the regulations, meaning these costs remain stagnant or are rising in some states, experts say.
“Some of the physician dispensers are trying to dispense in a way that they can maintain the their income (by way of) new strengths of the drugs,” said Dongchun Wang, author of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Workers Compensation Research Institute’s latest study that highlights newer, more expensive strengths of existing drugs as one of the lead culprits.