Joe Paduda's blog today, "Is your hair on fire yet?", puts forth an excellent explanation as to the total cost of opioid over-utilization. Beyond the costs to patients' health and payers' claims, a possible hidden cost to some payers is the lost time due to patients not being able to return to work, or not allowed back to work because of liability related to their ongoing drug use. While that might seem to be obvious, in my discussions in the marketplace I completely concur with Joe that it is in large part not actively being addressed.
At this juncture, there is no lack of exposure to the problem (at this rate I'm anticipating a new 24/7 cable channel to deal exclusively with the U.S. prescription drug abuse issue). And if you have read this blog, you know how passionate both Michael and I are on this subject.
So to Joe on behalf of Michael, myself and the PRIUM team, all I can say is ... Amen!
In this together – Mark
On Twitter @PRIUM1
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