Got this from someone in the US who uses Pain Meds.......
with the caption.....''Has anyone ever heard of THIS?!?!?!? They're denying me life insurance because I'm on opioids!!!! How biased is this?!? I figured if they denied me it would be due to my health. NOT the fact that I take meds for chronic pain!!! I'm outraged.
Anyone?''
(CNN)The latest fighters in the opioid addiction epidemic aren't addicts-turned-activists, cops or even addiction counselors. They are health insurance companies.
Cigna, which insures about 14 million Americans, has become the latest major health insurance company to take measures to combat the staggering opioid addiction numbers and deaths, targeting what many feel is feeding the problem: overprescribing of prescription painkillers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine.
Companies such as Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield have taken similar measures over the past several years to prevent deaths and keep addiction numbers from going up. It also makes good business sense: One researcher points out that the cost to public and private insurance companies of prescription painkiller abuse, treatment and "diversion" (when patients sell the medication instead of taking it) is an estimated $72.5 billion a year.
And because these insurance companies play a big financial role in health care, they might be able to make some of the most impact, says Dr. Andrew Kolodny, a senior scientist at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
"They're paying the bills," Kolodny said. "They're paying for the medicines that people are getting addicted to. They're paying for the doctors' visits where people are getting medicines prescribed. They've got quite a bit of influence in this."
Making use of patient data at their fingertips.
For years, Cigna, like other major health insurance companies, has had access to prescription information for its customers. Any time you fill a prescription using your insurance, the company knows about it. Part of Cigna's new measure will be to flag those customers who are deemed high-risk -- either for getting large amounts of opioid medicines, for getting narcotics from different doctors or for being on the medicines for a long time -- and getting in touch with those customers' doctors.
"We reach out to the doctors who are prescribing and let them know that this history exists," said Dr. Doug Nemecek, chief medical officer for Cigna's behavioral health business. "We ask (the doctors) to look at the history themselves and make a decision: Is it appropriate, or is it not appropriate?"
If the doctor believes that addiction may be an issue, the insurer can help get him or her to talk to the patient about treatment options. If the doctor feels the patient still needs to be prescribed long-term narcotics, Cigna can limit where the patient is able to pick the medicine up and which doctors are able to prescribe narcotics to them, so that the doctor is able to closely monitor whether that patient seems to be needing more and more painkillers.
But if a patient goes to other doctors or pharmacies asking for narcotic painkillers, Cigna cannot tell the pharmacy not to fill a prescription; the insurer would simply not pay for it.
There are already databases that look at what kinds of prescriptions a patient has been filling -- called Prescription Drug Monitoring Program databases -- and they generally pull together data in each state. But it's difficult for some doctors to know what prescriptions patients are filling in other states.
As Cigna points out, only about 20% of doctors actually consult these databases, so the insurer will take it upon itself to point out to doctors which patients may raise red flags.
The company also wants to make sure "medication-assisted therapy" -- which combines therapy with addiction treatment medicine such as Suboxone -- is available to those who need it.
READ MORE.....
edition.cnn.com/2016/05/19/health/health-insurance-companies-opioid-epidemic/
