Wellness and the high cost of prescription drugs

In recent years, the use of narcotics in treating injured workers has faced heavy scrutiny, and for good reason. Statistics released at the latest National Council on Compensation Insurance, Inc. (NCCI) Annual Issues Symposium, which took place in Orlando, Fla., are unsettling.

While the overall share of prescription drugs as a percentage of medical costs in workers’ comp has stayed steady at around 18 percent, the drugs that are being prescribed and how they are being fulfilled are of major concern.

First, we must examine the rising trend of physicians dispensing their own drugs. When physicians dispense medicine, they sometimes compound drugs, leading to prescriptions that can be billed without a fee schedule. They can also charge a dispensing fee, leading to even higher costs for insurers. According to NCCI, around $50 of the typical $265 prescription cost per claim can be directly attributed to physician dispensing.

The other troubling statistic is the number of narcotics being prescribed. The cost per claim for narcotics increased from $39 in 2003 to $59 in 2011. This equates to a rate of 0.79 narcotic prescriptions per claim, up from 0.56 in 2003. Of these narcotics, OxyContin is the most troubling. Statistics reveal that 25.5 percent of all money spent on narcotics is spent on the drug. To read more about this growing problem, click on http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2013/07/03/combating-rising-prescription-drug-costs-in-worker