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Florida Physician Dispensaries Opt Out Of Opioids Due To Ban – WCRI

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Physician Dispensaries Opt Out Of Opioids – A Good Sign

Physician dispensaries Opt Out due to a strict ban in Florida    Florida has endured an epidemic of the improper use of opioids. They have been discussed to the nth degree in Workers Compensation.

Resperine Physician Dispensaries Opt Out prescription
Wikimedia commons – Linda Bartlett

One of the most prevalent voices against improper use of opioids has been Mark Walls in his  Workers Comp Analysis Group  on LinkedIn .  The group has many articles and discussion on opioids.  If you have not joined the group, you are missing out on the hot topics in WC.

The State of Florida decided to ban WC physician dispensing on opioids that was likely due to numerous television shows on pill mills in Florida.  Florida sometimes seems to come up with very bad rulings on WC cases.  However, this was a great way to cut opioid use.

What do you think happened?  According to WCRI in its very informative report , Impact of Banning Physician Dispensing of Opioids in Florida , when opioids are banned, the physician dispensers switched away from opiates.  The physicians also substituted in non-opiates instead of writing a RX to be dispensed at a pharmacy.

The lingering questions would be  – why did the doctors prescribe opioids in the first place?

According to the study, “The ban on physician dispensing of stronger opioids, House Bill 7095, went into effect July 1, 2011.  The study examined the medical care received by injured workers with injuries occurring prior to the law change and after the law change. Patients’ prescription histories were analyzed for the first 3–6 months after the injury. ”

Medicine Physician Dispensaries Opt Out Picture
Wikimedia commons – en:User: Sponge

Some of the highlights from the study were:

  1. The study found a high rate of physician compliance with the ban. The percentage of workers receiving stronger opioids was 14.5 before the ban. This fell after the law change to 12.4 percent.
  2. There was an increase in the percentage of patients receiving physician-dispensed nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications (e.g., ibuprofen, naproxen sodium)—from 23.8 percent of patients to 26.0 percent.
  3. “If this evidence is correct, it could shift the policy debate from whether or not there are substantial benefits to some patients from physician dispensing, to whether or not there are substantial harms to some patients from physician dispensing,” said Richard Victor, WCRI’s executive director.
  4. Victor cautioned that the results from this study are not definitive and could also be consistent with several other possible explanations.  WCRI is planning an additional study that examines patients at a greater length of time from injury to provide more definitive information.

The next opioid study by WCRI should be very interesting as more data points can be obtained from the prescribing information.

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James J Moore - Workers Comp Expert

Raleigh, NC, United States

About The Author...

James founded a Workers’ Compensation consulting firm, J&L Risk Management Consultants, Inc. in 1996. J&L’s mission is to reduce our clients’ Workers Compensation premiums by using time-tested techniques. J&L’s claims, premium, reserve and Experience Mod reviews have saved employers over $9.8 million in earned premiums over the last three years. J&L has saved numerous companies from bankruptcy proceedings as a result of insurance overpayments.

James has over 27 years of experience in insurance claims, audit, and underwriting, specializing in Workers’ Compensation. He has supervised, and managed the administration of Workers’ Compensation claims, and underwriting in over 45 states. His professional experience includes being the Director of Risk Management for the North Carolina School Boards Association. He created a very successful Workers’ Compensation Injury Rehabilitation Unit for school personnel.

James’s educational background, which centered on computer technology, culminated in earning a Masters of Business Administration (MBA); an Associate in Claims designation (AIC); and an Associate in Risk Management designation (ARM). He is a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) and a licensed financial advisor. The NC Department of Insurance has certified him as an insurance instructor. He also possesses a Bachelors’ Degree in Actuarial Science.

LexisNexis has twice recognized his blog as one of the Top 25 Blogs on Workers’ Compensation. J&L has been listed in AM Best’s Preferred Providers Directory for Insurance Experts – Workers Compensation for over eight years. He recently won the prestigious Baucom Shine Lifetime Achievement Award for his volunteer contributions to the area of risk management and safety. James was recently named as an instructor for the prestigious Insurance Academy.

James is on the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the North Carolina Mid-State Safety Council. He has published two manuals on Workers’ Compensation and three different claims processing manuals. He has also written and has been quoted in numerous articles on reducing Workers’ Compensation costs for public and private employers. James publishes a weekly newsletter with 7,000 readers.

He currently possess press credentials and am invited to various national Workers Compensation conferences as a reporter.

James’s articles or interviews on Workers’ Compensation have appeared in the following publications or websites:

  • Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS)
  • Entrepreneur Magazine
  • Bloomberg Business News
  • WorkCompCentral.com
  • Claims Magazine
  • Risk & Insurance Magazine
  • Insurance Journal
  • Workers Compensation.com
  • LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites
  • Various trade publications

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