Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features the recent announcement from the National Alliance of Medicare Set-Aside Professionals (NAMSAP) that it has endorsed the U.S. Surgeon General’s “Turn the Tide Rx” campaign aimed at ending the opioid epidemic.
The goals of the Turn the Tide Rx campaign are to educate prescribers and the public about opioids, change the cultural perception of addiction, and mobilize health care professionals to improve prescribing practices. Turn the Tide Rx promotes guidelines that encourage physicians to prescribe the lowest effective dose of immediate-release opioids only for acute pain, and only for short durations, usually three days or less and rarely more than seven days. NAMSAP also noted it would like to see CMS follow its own Part D guidelines when reviewing and approving Workers’ Comp MSAs, noting that in some instances, due to high MME levels and the demand to reserve for a patient’s life expectancy, CMS could be condoning the dangerous and inappropriate use of opioids.
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