All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Mar 14 2018 // New data on the Independent Medical Review process used to resolve California workers’ compensation medical disputes show that IMR volume dipped for the first time ever in 2017, but the outcomes were unchanged as IMR...
Mar 12 2018 // Over 20 years, Brian Komoto built a thriving pharmacy in California’s Central Valley. Each day, his nurses would travel the vast agricultural region’s roads to help hepatitis C patients take a grueling regimen...
Mar 12 2018 // Florida will institute prescription limits on opioids and increase funding for treatment under a bill passed by the state Legislature on Friday.The legislation to combat the state’s opioids crisis – which...
Mar 9 2018 // Injured workers who were not weaned off of opioids had much higher drug costs and higher treatment transaction volumes, according to a report released on Friday by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating...
Mar 9 2018 // Two more South Carolina counties have sued major drug companies because of opioid abuse cases.Media outlets reported that Greenville and Spartanburg counties have sued drugmakers, pharmacies, distributors and doctors. The...
Mar 8 2018 // The National Transportation Safety Board says it found several safety issues during its investigation of a 2015 rail yard death at a Pine Bluff packaging plant. The agency says it found illicit drug use by employees,...
Mar 8 2018 // U.S. health insurer Cigna Corp. struck a $52-billion deal to buy pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) Express Scripts Holding Co on Thursday, looking for new ways to hold onto their profits as the industry faces greater...
Mar 8 2018 // Using prescribed opioids adds significant time to temporary disability taken by workers with work-related lower back injuries, according to a new industry study. Temporary disability is time that workers spend away from...
Mar 7 2018 // The Indiana General Assembly has passed legislation that adopts a drug formulary for the state’s workers’ compensation system.The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) is urging Indiana Gov....
Mar 6 2018 // Purdue Pharma LP’s decision to stop promoting its opioid drugs to doctors is being hailed as the first result of a judge’s push for concrete solutions to a nationwide epidemic, even though the company says the...
Mar 6 2018 // Employers are struggling to hire workers in tightening U.S. job market. Marijuana is now legal in nine states and Washington, D.C., meaning more than one in five American adults can eat, drink, smoke or vape as they...
Mar 5 2018 // Louisiana’s attorney general is taking charge of a state lawsuit against drug manufacturers, under a deal that ends a dispute with the governor’s office over who controls litigation against the companies over...
Mar 2 2018 // President Donald Trump on Thursday called for a federal lawsuit against opioid companies and stiffer penalties for drug dealers, arguing that the government must take a strong approach to combat an opioid addiction...
Feb 28 2018 // A judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit challenging federal laws criminalizing marijuana as unconstitutional, saying the five plaintiffs had failed to pursue changes in the drug’s legal status by first going through...
Feb 28 2018 // Ten doctors have been charged with overprescribing pain pills from clinics in West Virginia and Virginia, federal prosecutors announced Feb. 20. Two of those patients died.Most of the 69-count indictment charges the...
Feb 27 2018 // The nation’s largest prescription drug distributor has lost its bid to keep a lawsuit out of a West Virginia county.News outlets report a judge rejected McKesson’s claim that it has no duty under state law to...
Feb 26 2018 // The Florida House’s version of legislation to combat the state’s opioid epidemic is headed to the floor. The bill, which passed the Health & Human Services Committee last week, would impose new restrictions...
Feb 23 2018 // Though states and the federal government remain at odds on marijuana legalization, the drug is gaining traction as a viable treatment in workers’ compensation claims.In a recent discussion with Claims Journal, Brian...
Feb 21 2018 // Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says he’ll call a special legislative session to address reimbursement rates for pharmacies and to amend the state’s open container law if there is consensus among lawmakers on the...
Feb 21 2018 // Kentucky’s attorney general on Monday filed a lawsuit against drug distributor Cardinal Health Inc , accusing it of contributing to the opioid epidemic by failing to halt or report suspiciously large or frequent...