Pharmacy: Chronic Pain Claims
Get In Front of Chronic Pain Claims with Preferred Medical
Opioids are now the most prescribed class of medications in the U.S. Each year 289 million prescriptions are written, despite the fact that little evidence exists to support their effectiveness for treatment of chronic pain.
While 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain in the U.S., it affects more people than heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined. It’s estimated that 21-29 percent of chronic pain patients end up misusing opioids and approximately 8 to 12 percent become addicted to them.
And treating the pain doesn’t solve the problem. Without effective treatment of the injury itself, workers need more physical therapy and more doctor visits, which lead to additional costs and result in them being away from work even longer.
Preferred Medical helps our clients get in front of chronic pain claims before they become high-risk, high-dollar claims. We do this through a combination of offense and defense that starts before the first fill.
Our approach to workers’ compensation chronic pain includes:
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Individualized formularies that are personalized down to the injured worker, pharmacy or prescriber
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Proactive drug utilization reviews to pause questionable and potentially dangerous fills at point of sale
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Early intervention through a combination of claim triage, clinical decision support and peer-to-peer physician engagement