WASHINGTON — The government’s employee health plan will tighten its rules for covering prescription opioid painkillers starting this fall, the Trump administration said Monday.
The announcement by a senior administration official was part of a White House drug policy briefing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under the media coverage rules established for the event.
The Federal Employee Health Benefits Program is the world’s largest job-based health plan, covering an estimated 9 million people, including workers, retirees and family members. Patients dealing with intractable pain from diseases such as cancer will still be able to get opioid painkillers, but the new policy is geared to preventing over-prescribing to people who might just need the drugs for a short period of time.
This proposal is such bullshit and is the very definition of “Government Overreach”!! Why is Trump even bothering with life-saving medicine which millions of Americans depend on every day instead of investigating the 88,000 deaths each year attributed to alcohol??
And to allow such a violation of basic human rights is outright Un-American!! (With an economic burden of BILLIONS!!)
Let’s get real folks! Time to take your heads out of the sand!
I’m an abandoned pain patient and this law is going to kill way more people that live with chronic pain . We will Be our business to the street dealer now. This is a stupid move from an Idiot running the White House. Suicided numbers will rise.
Hmm, how does the CDC separate the od deaths ? Aren’t heroin AND fent the leading cause of od? Sooo how can ods be down due to less heroin ods? Aren’t heroin and fent used together ? So, how can they differentiate the 2? Btw didnt the CDC come out and admit fudging the numbers of Total ods? Hmm now its 68,000 ? Apx 17,000 ods or less were from rx , legal or illegal? Also fake oxy laced with fent , would be lower if the pharmaceutical brand were available? Oh yes, these were not legal rx but , due to prohibition even legit cp] users cant get them. Why? Oh yes this is helping addicts not od. Hmm, wonder if the house and Senate will be forced to give up opioids as civilians have ? Or Vets , who put lives on the line , now hurt in combat, are forced to suffer. Yup USA. Treats their Vets right. Ask them or any citizen whose had rx taken away , for the shh, study of make em healthy like it or not, they waste “our” money on entitlements. Yup, just looking out for us , uh, right.
“The improvement was driven by a drop in deaths from heroin and prescription painkillers”
Yet another lie. CDC’s own data shows that deaths due solely to Rx opioids taken as directed is almost non-existent.
Spot on, Dan! Any improvement is from Narcan distribution and possibly from CDC being more honest about the data…but that is a stretch given they are still trying to mislead the public in numerous ways.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that overdose deaths appear to have declined last year for the first time in nearly three decades. Data show nearly 68,000 reported deaths in 2018”
Another lie.
The CDC and DEA lie & double count or more on so-called opioid deaths
If 1 person dies & has heroin, fentanyl and alcohol present, then they count that as:
1 heroin death
1 fentanyl death
1 alcohol death
If someone dies from a lingering illness and are taking opioids, they count this as an opioid death. 3 Deaths for the price of 1.
Also presence does NOT equal causality. Polydrug use is the cause of most drug related deaths
“Opioid painkillers prescribed following a surgery unwittingly became a gateway for some people caught up in the nation’s opioid epidemic.”
A lie
Is this a dictatorship in the making? Or an attempt to get a grip on seemingly rampant prescribing? Patients in real pain are being rendered victims of tackling ODs on street drugs. If the source countries of street fentanyl are known, where is the vastly stepped up action to nail those illicit drug dealers?? THAT should be the no. 1 preventive action.
The government should really just stay out of the doctor-patient relationship.
1st of all, opioids cannot be refilled. Every time you need opioids you have to go to the doctor and get a new prescription-in this case every 7 days. I had no idea that there is an overdose problem with prescription painkillers among government employees. This seems over the top to me. Why would anyone want to work for the government?
Vickie, that is not exactly true. My husband is a pain patient and although he calls in his medication every 4 weeks, he physically sees the doctor quarterly.
That’s true for me also
“Refills” is not a good word. As Vicky said, you cannot “refill” an opioid prescription. However, as Susie said, there generally is no requirement you actually see the doctor for each fill but that can change by state. You do have to contact the doctor to get a new prescription whether you actually see the doctor or not. Some states allow the doctor to electronically fill the prescription. Mine allows this with special equipment. For others, they will have to physically go pick up the prescription unless the doctor fills out multiple post dated prescriptions (which may or may not be legal depending on state) that the patient can fill each time, which in this case would mean every 7 days, the patient would have to hobble possibly to the doctor and definitely to the pharmacy to be berated by the pharmacist and hope that they have the prescription in stock. Usually patients on short duration Rx are sick or just had surgery. Stupid, stupid policy, completely unnecessary, and will nothing to stop the ODs.
1st of all, opioids cannot be refilled. Every time you need opioids you have to go to the doctor and get a new prescription-in this case every 7 days. I had no idea that there is an overdose problem with prescription painkillers among government employees. This seems over the top to me. Why would anyone want to work for the government?
Sorry. I live in Texas. The laws are very clear here. I have taken Norco(hydrocodone) for over 20 years. In the old days the doc could call it in until the law changed in 2014 (I think?) I went without until I found a pain management doc in 2016 and got back on track. I have to go in every 30 days to see the doc and pick up a new script. Surgery would put me in a much worse place than I already am, I have been told-so no surgery. Every 30 days I visit my pain doc. I am just glad I don’t work for the government.