All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Nov 12 2019 // The prevalence of opioids in California workers’ compensation lost-time claims has dropped 51% over the past decade, reducing both average benefit payments and average days away from work on those claims, according...
Nov 8 2019 // Paula Lawlor was sifting through piles of internal General Motors Co. documents in a hotel room outside of Los Angeles when she hit pay dirt: Company records showing that GM knew for years that stronger roofs on its...
Nov 5 2019 // The San Francisco startup that invented the groundbreaking Juul e-cigarette had a central goal during its development: captivating users with the first hit.The company had concluded that consumers had largely rejected...
Oct 30 2019 // Construction workers are more likely to use drugs than workers in other professions, finds a study by the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research at NYU College of Global Public Health.The study, published in the journal...
Oct 29 2019 // A new study shows that following the adoption of recent changes to streamline the California workers’ compensation medical review and approval process, 94.1% of medical services performed or requested for California...
Oct 28 2019 // Colleges are becoming a battleground in the conflict between federal and state marijuana laws as students who use medical pot challenge decades-old campus drug policies.In states where medical marijuana is legal, students...
Oct 24 2019 // Several U.S. states that have been ravaged by the opioid epidemic are pushing back on a proposed $48 billion settlement framework that would resolve thousands of lawsuits against five drug companies accused of fueling the...
Oct 22 2019 // Four large drug companies could resume talks on Tuesday to try to reach a $48 billion settlement of all opioid litigation against them, after agreeing with two Ohio counties to a $260 million deal to avert the first...
Oct 22 2019 // United Parcel Service Inc.’s new Flight Forward drone unit will soon start home prescription delivery from CVS Health Corp.The service, which will debut in one or two U.S. cities in the coming weeks, shows how the...
Oct 21 2019 // Imagine you’re the chief executive officer of a large pharmaceutical corporation with an important drug that’s under attack. More than 2,500 lawsuits have been filed against your company. The plaintiffs...
Oct 21 2019 // Among the 870 bills that California Gov. Gavin Newsom acted upon for 2019 that were passed by the state Legislature, there were about 20 that may hold interest for the workers’ compensation community.The California...
Oct 21 2019 // Employers in Texas say too many low-skill workers are failing to pass drug tests needed to get hired.Forty-eight percent of Texas firms who had difficulty finding low-skill workers cited their inability to pass a drug test...
Oct 21 2019 // On Monday, two Ohio counties reached a last-minute settlement with four companies they accused of fueling the nationwide opioid epidemic. The counties were seeking billions of dollars to cover the cost of addiction...
Oct 21 2019 // Four large drug companies reached a last-minute $260 million legal settlement over their role in the U.S. opioid addiction epidemic, averting the first federal trial that was scheduled to start Monday morning in...
Oct 21 2019 // A new law aimed at helping Wisconsin patients access important prescription medications will go into effect on Nov. 1, 2019, the state’s insurance regulators say.Called the Step Therapy Law, Wisconsin Act 12...
Oct 21 2019 // Louisiana’s high court has nixed the idea that an unconfirmed or unverified drug test can be used to prove intoxication or fraud in order to deny the workers’ compensation claim of an injured worker.In doing...
Oct 18 2019 // Louisiana’s high court recently nixed the idea that an unconfirmed or unverified drug test can be used to prove intoxication or fraud in order to deny the workers’ compensation claim of an injured worker.In...
Oct 18 2019 // The chief executives of the three largest U.S. drug distributors and a drugmaker have been summoned to appear before a federal judge to discuss a proposal to resolve thousands of lawsuits alleging they fueled the U.S....
Oct 17 2019 // An Oklahoma judge on Oct. 15 acknowledged making a nearly $107 million miscalculation in determining how much drug maker Johnson & Johnson must pay the state to help address the state’s opioid crisis.Following a...
Oct 16 2019 // Three drug distributors are in talks with state and local governments to settle thousands of opioid lawsuits for $18 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the...