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The price differences between brand-name and generic drugs is more than 35 percent, according to a new report. In fact, it is "the largest widening of brand and generic prices since Express Scripts began calculating its Prescription Price Index in 2008."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that California residents using medical marijuana permitted by state law but prohibited by federal law was an illegal use of drugs under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Drug screening for marijuana can provide critical information about potentially problematic workers' comp claims, according to a new white paper. A pharmacy benefit management company says urine drug screening can be an essential tool.

An injured worker who had spent most of a six-year period in a recliner taking methadone daily after a spine fusion now walks several miles a day, taught his son to fly fish, and returned to work. Another, a stressed-out invalid for most of a decade, had a medication tab upward of $10,000 a year and is now feeling optimistic, reducing her medications, and walking every day for exercise. A third was bed-bound for 10 years and prescribed 400 mg of morphine equivalents daily, but now does her own housework and shopping, exercises at the gym daily, and is largely pain-free.

Long-term workers' comp claimants who are still yearning for a better life are good candidates for the Maze-Masters program -- but claim files don't include that information, according to Dr. Jennifer Christian, president of Webility Corporation and founder of Maze-Masters.

Progressive Medical is taking its data analytics program that identifies potentially high-cost, high-risk opioid claims to the next level.

The marriage of art and science is helping companies identify and intervene in claims involving opioids (and other prescriptions) that are likely to turn into high-cost, chronic cases with the potential for medication misuse and/or abuse.

Nearly all states have a prescription drug monitoring program. However, they are much less effective in combating prescription drug abuse than they could be, according to a new study.

Ohio's workers' comp system has its first-ever formulary to limit prescriptions to injured workers. In its first few months, the plan has reduced prescribed doses of narcotics by 1.1 million, or 12 percent, according to preliminary information.

A model law aimed at mitigating opioid misuse in the workers' comp system is in the development stage. The International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commission's medical issues committee has drafted language to help jurisdictions deal with the issue.

Efforts in Massachusetts and Texas aimed at curbing the misuse of opioids in the worker' comp system seem to be working, according to a new study examining the longer term use of narcotics in 21 jurisdictions.

The inappropriate use of opioids in the workers' comp system is not unique to the private sector. Federal agencies face many of the same challenges, and like some states, their solutions offer valuable insights.

While the idea that opioid use is an independent risk factor for the development of catastrophic claims may not be surprising, the scientific confirmation that opioids are driving up workers' comp claims costs has led at least one insurer to consider alternative ways of treating injured workers who have chronic pain.

The Food and Drug Administration-approved indication for nearly all opioids is for moderate to severe pain. A label change by the FDA would end the implication that the drugs are safe and effective for long-term use, according to a physicians' organization targeting opioid overprescribing.

Drugmakers would be prohibited from promoting opioids for continuous long-term use for non-cancer pain under a proposed label change.

Workers' comp providers seeking more information on evidence-based opioid treatments will get some help thanks to an improved online tool.

"Duration for claims with prescribed opioid pain medication is clearly higher than for claims without opioids prescribed," says a new NCCI study. While acknowledging opioids do not necessarily cause longer durations, the researchers say it may be an area that warrants further research.

Medications dispensed by physicians often cost 60 to 300 percent more than the same drug purchased at a retail pharmacy, says a new study.

"Chronic opioid therapy always entails risks for patients, their families and the community, so vigilance and caution are essential," says a new educational piece on opioid prescribing.

Dispensing medications directly from physicians' offices is becoming a trend in many states.