Dissecting the new opioid prescribing guidelines The U.S. saw about 165,000 deaths from overdoses of prescription opioid medications between 1999 and 2014. The same time period saw a quadrupling in the number of opioid prescriptions written, even though the amount of pain Americans reported remained virtually unchanged. Read More... May 16, 2016 Public Health guidelines, opiod 0 0 Comment Read More »
How Kaiser, Blue Shield will seek to limit opioid overdoses With research indicating that the risk for fatal overdose dramatically increases when people take higher doses of opioids, two of California's major health players - an HMO and an insurance company - are launching efforts aimed at getting doctors to prescribe the painkillers in smaller amounts. Read More... May 10, 2016 Blue Shield, Insurance, Public Health 0 0 Comment Read More »
Panel: Painkiller training should be required for physicians WASHINGTON — Doctors who prescribe painkillers should be required to undergo training aimed at reducing misuse and abuse of the medications, according to federal health experts, though they acknowledge the challenge of putting such a mandate in place. Read More... May 5, 2016 General, Public Health 0 0 Comment Read More »
Medi-Cal’s Doctor Sign-Up System Finally Going Online Medi-Cal’s enrollment system for doctors and other health care providers, long criticized in the medical community for being complicated and slow, is getting an overdue transformation. Read More... May 3, 2016 General, Insurance, Medi-Cal 0 0 Comment Read More »
Opioid Epidemic Fueling Hospitalizations, Hospital Costs Every day, headlines detail the casualties of the nation’s surge in heroin and prescription painkiller abuse: the funerals, the broken families and the patients cycling in and out of treatment. Now, a new study sheds light on another repercussion — how this public health problem is adding to the nation’s ballooning health care costs and who’s shouldering that burden. Read More... May 3, 2016 Public Health 0 0 Comment Read More »
