Baltimore, MD – Ameritox recently announced that it has been selected by Progressive Medical, Inc. to become part of its Urine Drug Monitoring (UDM) network to help clients manage pharmacy costs and improve the clinical outcomes for injured workers.
Progressive Medical, a pharmacy benefit manager in the workers’ compensation industry, has used UDM in its overall medication compliance and pain management strategy for several years. By establishing a comprehensive UDM provider network, the company believes it will gain greater insights into prescription medication use and help its clients achieve better control of the cost of screenings and receive consistent reporting of results.
A key advantage to Progressive Medical’s program is its ability to identify claimants who may benefit from drug monitoring and if warranted, integrate them into the most appropriate clinical intervention program to achieve the best possible outcome.
“Urine drug monitoring is an invaluable tool to assist the physician in determining whether injured workers are taking their medications or not, which is important from a compliance and safety standpoint,” said Tron Emptage, chief clinical officer of Progressive Medical. “Our Urine Drug Monitoring Program is designed to provide our clients with standardized, easy-to-understand reports that contain actionable clinical recommendations to help get their injured workers back on the road to recovery, help manage overall claim costs and keep the claim on track.”
Ameritox, which helped pioneer pain medication monitoring, published a study in 2011 called “Healthcare Costs and Nonadherence Among Chronic Opioid Users” that concluded that patients being treated for chronic pain with opioid therapy generated much higher healthcare costs than patients not being treated with prescription painkillers.
“Conducting medication monitoring can give both clinicians and those paying for the treatment better information regarding how medication is possibly being used,” said Ameritox Vice President, Medical Affairs, Kathryn Bronstein , PhD, RN. “Monitoring can also be an important, tool to help clinicians prevent the human tragedy that can stem from the misuse, abuse or diversion of powerful painkillers.”
Source: Ameritox