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Legislation that would cap reimbursement amounts for medications dispensed by physicians is on its way to the governor.

An overall reduction in drug utilization of 2.8 percent resulted from a decrease in the number of prescriptions per claim and days' supply per prescription, reports a pharmacy benefit manager.

Addressing the opioid crisis in the workers' comp system requires a global approach, pain management experts say. Increasingly, industry practitioners are realizing that an interdisciplinary pain management and prevention team offers the best chance for optimal outcomes.

Using a team approach to help injured workers avoid becoming permanently disabled is working for companies such as Corvel.

Members of the Florida House are pondering another attempt to cut down the costs of medications dispensed through physicians' offices.

Injured workers in California who receive repackaged medications directly from their doctors' offices do not appear to have better outcomes than others, according to new research.

There are fewer prescriptions for compound drugs in the California workers' comp system these days. Nevertheless, payers are shelling out more money for them, according to a report by the California Workers' Compensation Institute.

California's workers' comp system could see savings of $57.2 million by allowing third-party payer access to its prescription drug monitoring program, suggests a new report.

On average, pharmaceuticals comprise about 19 percent of each dollar spent on medical costs in the workers' comp system, according to NCCI. But a Maine-based insurer reports its percentage is less than one-quarter of that.

Opioids and repackaged medications will be the focus of state lawmakers during an upcoming national meeting. Committees in the National Council of Insurance Legislators will look at model laws for states to adopt.

Eight workers' comp experts agree that opioids are still one of the biggest challenges facing practitioners. Other concerns include physician dispensing, comorbidities, and access to medical care.

A shift in focus from treating the loss of function to relieving pain explains much of the cost differences for workers' comp claims more than 20 years old, according to new research.

"Effective use of opioids must result in clinically meaningful improvement in function," says the Washington Department of Labor and Industries. "Continuing to prescribe opioids in the absence of clinically meaningful improvement in function or after the development of a severe adverse outcome is not proper and necessary care in the Washington state workers' compensation system."

Drug spending among workers' comp payers is relatively flat. That's the good news. The bad news is that concerns about the issue, especially opioids, is increasing, according to a new survey by a pharmacy benefit consortium.

A federal agency may take the next steps in the battle against opioid abuse. At least, that's what a physicians' group is hoping.

Employers looking to prevent injured workers from misusing opioids for their chronic pain may want to encourage treating physicians to develop agreements with their patients.

As employers increasingly see the effects of opioid treatment among their workers, many are wondering what, if anything, they can do.

Immediate release fentanyl preparations and meperidine, as well as methadone, pose particularly high risks of overdose, substance misuse, or toxicity, according to new research. The drugs warrant "particularly close scrutiny" or should not be prescribed to outpatients, according to the California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation.

In a case in Oregon several years ago, the costs associated with the use of medical marijuana to treat a work-related injury were found compensable. In another case, in which the worker's attending physician neither prescribed nor authorized the worker's medical use of marijuana, the expenses of supplies related to growing marijuana were found not compensable. That's among the information included in a new survey of medical marijuana issues in state workers' comp systems.

"Marijuana remains a drug listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. It remains unacceptable for any safety-sensitive employee subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportation's drug testing regulations to use marijuana."