An update out from NCCI on its research brief, “Workers’ Compensation and Prescription Drugs”, looks at recent trends that have been observed in workers’ comp prescription drugs. The brief looks at factors influencing prescription drug costs – physician dispensing, opioid use, brand name and generic drugs and in-network vs. out-of-network costs.

They found that though the price of drugs is continuously increasing there is less utilization. Prescription drug costs make up 13-14% of a workers’ comp claim, on average. The projected prescription drug share of total medical costs for Accident Year 2016 is 13.7%. Costs declined in 2015 by 2% and by 4% in 2016, largely due to a decline in utilization. Opioid costs per active claim declined by 3% in 2015 and 7% in 2016. Physician dispensing and brand name costs per active claim also declined those years. All of these declines are associated with utilization.

Prescription drug prices are rising, but at a slower rate than in recent years. Brand name prescription drug prices have increased more than 10% per year in each of the last five years, a cumulative increase of 80% since 2011. Lyrica, OxyContin and Gabapentin, the top three drugs, made up more than 15% of prescription costs in 2016.

Read more from NCCI and WorkCompWire.