Opioids, deaths, and workers comp

The number of of people dead from opioid analgesic use quadrupled over the last nine years. Opioids are synthetic opiates, and include methadone, OxyContin, Percocet, Oxycodone, fentanyl, and Actiq.
11,499 people died as a result of opioid usage in 2007, up from less than 3000 in 1999.
That’s twice as many as died from cocaine, and five times more than died from heroin.
The data come from the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System, and was published in the CESAR bulletin of May 31.
Another study published in JAMA indicates significantly higher risk of death for those taking more than 100mg/day.
This dosage level is not uncommon in workers comp, and the high dosage, coupled with long-term usage of opioids, significantly raises the chance of death from overdose. In fact, in comp, – over a third of claimants who start using opioids are on them for more than a year; a fifth are on for more than two years; and a seventh are on for more than three years.
And the usage of opioids in comp is exploding – the number of scripts is up 500% in California – in only four years.
The unknown is how many workers comp claimants are dying from opioid overdoses. I’m thinking that ‘unknown’ will not remain unknown for much longer, and when the data does come out, there’s going to be a lot of ‘energetic’ conversation about who’s at fault and what to do.
Here’s hoping we get to solutions pretty quickly.