Recommendations on reducing opioid use

The Insurer Task Force on Opioid Reduction has issued recommendations, Ohio Attorney General DeWine announced.

The Insurer Task Force on Opioid Reduction has issued 15 recommendations, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced in a June 12 news release.

DeWine created the group last year to foster discussion on how health insurance companies in Ohio can help combat the opioid epidemic.

“The opioid epidemic knows no boundaries, and we all must work together to prevent abuse and ensure those suffering get the treatment they need,” DeWine said in the release. “Health insurers have stepped up with ideas for action in prevention, intervention, and treatment to help Ohioans that are outlined in the report released today.”

The 15 recommendations focus on ways health insurers could help prevent opioid abuse, better target intervention efforts, and improve treatment of those suffering opioid addiction. A look at the recommendations:

Prevention

• Insurers should cover and encourage, where appropriate, the use of both non-opioid pain medications and alternative treatments to manage pain.

• Insurers should identify and develop targeted education efforts for prescribers who write a high volume of opioid prescriptions compared to others in their specialty.

• Insurers should ensure providers are aware of and follow appropriate opioid prescribing guidelines, which should be more uniform.

• Insurers should develop targeted prevention efforts to reduce the number of opioid prescriptions written for adolescents and young adults who are “opioid-naive.”

• Insurers should develop education programs aimed at individuals who are receiving their first opioid prescription to make them aware of the risks of longterm opioid use.

• Insurers should work together to develop common, easy-to-understand communications strategies to educate the public about the risks of opioids.

Intervention

• Insurers should educate prescribers about properly decreasing opioid dosages to reduce patients’ dependence on opioids.

• Insurers should create, use and continually refine programs to reduce the practice of doctor or pharmacy “shopping” by patients who are seeking opioids.

• Insurers should use multi-disciplinary teams to coordinate care for members with opioid-use disorder.

• Insurers should direct obstetricians and gynecologists to screen pregnant patients for opioid use throughout pregnancy to reduce the serious health risks for infants.

• Insurers should accept a standard authorization form for disclosure and use of protected health information to better coordinate care.

• Insurers should help government partners to coordinate substance-use treatment for patients preparing to re-enter the community after a period of incarceration.

• The General Assembly should amend state statute so that commercial insurance companies have access to prescription information contained in the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System, the system designed to collect data on outpatient prescriptions for controlled substances.

“The opioid epidemic knows no boundaries, and we all must work together to prevent abuse and ensure those suffering get the treatment they need.”

— Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine

Treatment

• Insurers should eliminate or expedite prior authorizations for accessing Medication Assisted Treatment to reduce the amount of time a patient must wait to receive treatment.

• Insurers should increase reimbursement rates to adequately cover the cost of providing substance use disorder treatment.

A copy of the report can be found on the Attorney General’s website.