Latest Drugs Headlines

All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.

10 More Facts on How Employee Substance Misuse Impacts Businesses

Mar 22 2017 // More than 70 percent of U.S. employers are feeling the direct impact of prescription drug misuse in their workplaces, according to a recent survey by the National Safety Council.The survey also found that although 71...

California Workers Comp Medical Review Volume Hit a Record in 2016

Mar 21 2017 // The California workers’ compensation independent medical review process used to resolve medical disputes found that in 2016 IMR physicians once again upheld about 90 percent of utilization review physician’s...

Patients’ Pre-Surgery Opioid Use Contributes to Higher Costs, Complications

Mar 20 2017 // Surgery patients often go home from the hospital with a prescription for painkillers to take as they recover. But a new study suggests that doctors should also focus on patients who were taking such medicines before their...

Prescription Drug Crisis Fueling Robberies of Georgia Pharmacies

Mar 20 2017 // A wave of break-ins and robberies of Georgia pharmacies is being fueled by a drug epidemic, authorities said.In June, a thief with a sledgehammer broke into a Snellville pharmacy and stole thousands of dollars worth of...

Prescription Drugs in the Workplace

Mar 20 2017 // More than 70 percent of United States employers are feeling the direct impact of prescription drug misuse in their workplaces, according to a survey from the National Safety Council.The survey, How the Prescription Drug...

Massachusetts and Rhode Island Doctor Pleads Guilty for Overprescribing Opioids

Mar 17 2017 // At Dr. Fathalla Mashali’s pain management clinics, the waiting rooms were often so packed with patients that people sat on the floor, leaned against walls and spilled into the hallways.That’s because, federal...

Mississippi Gov. Nominates Rep. Formby to State Workers Comp Commission

Mar 17 2017 // Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is nominating a longtime Republican lawmaker to the three-member Workers Compensation Commission.Rep. Mark Formby of Picayune has served in the House since 1993 and helped push a 2012 law that...

Employers Struggle to Manage Benefits Covering Specialty Drugs

Mar 10 2017 // Twenty-seven percent of employers are offering their employees a high deductible plan with co-insurance as part of their specialty drug benefit, and although this strategy helps to lower insurance premiums, it can also...

70% of Employers Say Prescription Drug Abuse Affects Workplace

Mar 10 2017 // More than 70 percent of United States employers are feeling the direct impact of prescription drug misuse in their workplaces, according to a survey from the National Safety Council.The survey, How the Prescription Drug...

Louisiana Woman Pleads Guilty in Texas in Opioid Pill Mill Case

Mar 9 2017 // Carolina Giselle Berrio, a/k/a “Carolina Slocum Berrio,” “Karrie,” 37, of Lafayette, Louisiana is the latest defendant to plead guilty to being involved in a large opioid “pill mill”...

Current, Ex-Kentucky Governors Battle Over Health Law Legacy

Mar 8 2017 // As Republicans in Congress prepare to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law, Kentucky’s current governor and his predecessor are wrestling over the law’s legacy – and...

Stressed? Unfocused? Pop a Marijuana Mint and Get Back to Work

Mar 8 2017 // When Jeffrey Zucker needs to get a lot done at work, he eats half a weed gummy. Far from putting him at risk of a Maureen Dowd-level stupor, the 5-milligram dose of THC he gets gives him just a slight buzz that makes him...

Here Is a Section-by-Section Summary of Republicans’ Health Care Act

Mar 7 2017 // The following summary of the American Health Care Act, meant as a repeal and replacement for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), has been prepared by the Republican staff of the House Committee on Ways and Means. A copy...

New DEA Program Targets West Virginia Opioid Traffickers

Mar 6 2017 // The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will spend $500,000 on a program that aims to curb prescription drug and heroin abuse across the state. DEA special Agent Karl Colder tells the Charleston Gazette-Mail the project,...

Q&A: MEMIC Safety Expert on Growth of Ergonomics, Workers’ Comp

Feb 28 2017 // Karl Siegfried, Senior Vice President of Loss Control & Safety Services at Portland, Maine-headquartered MEMIC Group recently spoke with Insurance Journal about the safety management team that is in place at MEMIC and...

Pennsylvania Doctor Admits to Selling $5M Worth of Prescriptions to Addicts

Feb 27 2017 // A doctor has admitted his role in peddling prescriptions from a now-defunct clinic in Philadelphia, Penn., that specialized in helping drug addicts.Seventy-eighty-year-old Dr. Alan Summers pleaded guilty in federal court...

South Carolina Lawmakers File 10 Bills Aimed at Curbing Opioid Abuse

Feb 24 2017 // House Republicans filed 10 proposals Wednesday aimed at curbing South Carolina’s rampant prescription painkiller problem and promised more legislation would follow.“We wanted to get the ball rolling. This is...

Surprising Facts About Social Security and Medicare

Feb 22 2017 // While the era of “alternative facts” dawned in Washington last week, experts from across the ideological spectrum gathered in the capital for a review of real facts about our two most important retirement...

Overdose Calls Rise in Louisville, Kentucky, 151 Received in 4-Day Span

Feb 21 2017 // Emergency crews in Louisville, Ky., have seen a rise in the number of calls related to drug overdoses.The Courier-Journal reports Metro EMS says it fielded 151 overdose calls in four days, starting at midnight on Feb. 9....

Report: Opioid Prescriptions Drop 11.7% in Wisconsin

Feb 20 2017 // Opioid prescriptions in Wisconsin fell nearly 12 percent in the final months of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015. A new report from the Controlled Substances Board shows the number of prescriptions dropped 11.7...