CVS Pharmacy Will Limit Prescriptions for Opioids

With the 64,000 deaths from opioid overdoses last year alone, the medical community is struggling to contain the out-of-control opioid epidemic. Now, CVS, one the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers that oversees prescription drug benefits for 90 million people through its CVS Caremark plan, is attempting to address opioid abuse by no longer reimbursing opioid prescriptions beyond the first week for people filling these prescriptions for the first time. Beginning in February, the company announced, it will adhere to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) guidelines for prescribing opioids that limit doses and duration of the drugs prescribed by doctors. The CDC recommends prescribing the painkilling narcotics, which can be highly addictive, in as low a dose as possible for as short a time as needed. Not only will CVS Caremark only reimburse for seven days of prescriptions, but for first-time opioid prescription-fillers it will also dispense short-acting, rather than extended release, versions of the drugs for these patients. The pharmacy benefit managers who authorize prescriptions for CVS Caremark plan members, as well as pharmacists at CVS retail pharmacies, will be spending more time explaining to patients and doctors why some of their opioid prescriptions won’t be filled as ordered. “We estimated how long it would take for these conversations, and we are staffing up to do that,” says Dr. Troyen Brennan, chief medical ...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized CVS CVS health CVS pharmacy Drugs Opioid opioid epidemic opioid prescription opioid prescriptions opioid prescriptions cvs opioid use disorder opioids Source Type: news