Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features the release of an new report from WCRI that found evidence of considerable decreases in the prevalence of longer-term dispensing of opioids to injured workers in a number of states studied.
The 4th edition of Longer-Term Dispensing of Opioids examined trends in longer-term dispensing of opioids in 26 state workers’ comp systems, and also documents how often the services recommended by treatment guidelines (like drug testing, psychological evaluation and treatment, etc) were used for managing chronic opioid therapy. Major findings included 4 percentage point decreases in the frequency of claims that received longer-term opioids in KY and NY, with notable decreases of 1-3 points in many other states. The study also extended the finding that fewer than expected injured workers received recommended services mentioned above, with 19/26 states seeing less than 10% of injured workers with longer-term opioids received psychological evaluations.
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