Opioids And Workers’ Comp — A Quick Update

The rest of the world is beginning to catch up to the progress workers’ comp has made fighting the opioid scourge. Kudos to PBMs, payers, regulators, researchers and some physicians for recognizing the incredibly negative effects of opioids years ago, and taking action to mitigate some of these effects. That is NOT to say we’re anywhere close to getting this solved — far from it. But we have seen some evidence of decreases in the number of new claims getting opioids in some areas and an overall decline in opioid scripts and morphine equivalents (MEDs).