{"id":5591,"date":"2016-04-21T11:11:39","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T15:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newversion.wcinsights.com\/?p=5591"},"modified":"2016-04-21T11:11:40","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T15:11:40","slug":"the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cost of Opioid Abuse For Employers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/komunews\/6963463739\/in\/photolist-bBkzaD-bBkzbx-boqEgb-oYnMVT-kgzFJ-8mjtkq-9kv6cz-89wXSG-84tjxW-4bGoKp-5RFKx7-7MSQ9H-7LEptg-97zWNq-d1zcvq-7FutxE-2RiXzz-75h7Go-pXFnDJ-nJ3GTj-86nubm-FCnvR-5BiC9M-7fzACw-pzeceJ-oUSQL2-pRKsSq-5BiCap-5BiCa8-pzedAw-oUPUbA-bTaJ2D-pzhdxm-pzf7yZ-oUPNr9-28dA7-oUSP4z-pzf9Zv-pzhejw-pzf9a4-pRrxYx-pRKvCL-pzf8FD-pzhi9L-eeobaq-bTaJ3P-Dc6x5e-bTaJ9k-bEfZjY-CzAXZF\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"5593\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/pharmacy-shelf\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/pharmacy-shelf.png\" data-orig-size=\"346,305\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"pharmacy shelf\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/pharmacy-shelf-300x264.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/pharmacy-shelf.png\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5593\" src=\"https:\/\/newversion.wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/pharmacy-shelf-300x264.png\" alt=\"pharmacy shelf\" width=\"300\" height=\"264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/pharmacy-shelf-300x264.png 300w, https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/pharmacy-shelf.png 346w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The societal and emotional costs of the opioid epidemic are starting to gain more and more publicity as overdose deaths continue to rise. A new study has come out that highlights the economic costs, specifically on employers who are responsible for their employee\u2019s healthcare and for the costs of their work-related injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Castlight Health released a study using data from their benefit plan holders, and it shows almost a third of painkiller prescriptions that are paid for by an employer are being abused by the user. The study estimates that nationally, 4.5 percent of those who have an opioid prescription are abusive of their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/business\/business-news\/u-s-companies-losing-10b-year-due-workers-opioid-abuse-n559036\">medications<\/a>. They identified abusers as those who had received more than one 90 day supply of opioids, and who had gotten prescriptions from four or more providers over a five year study period. They excluded patients who were undergoing cancer treatments or in palliative care. They looked at medical reports and pharmacy data from over a million workers who were covered under the Castlight benefit plan from 2011 to 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Castlight\u2019s senior vice president of plan development and data operations, Kristin Torres Mowat, said that employers spend half of their total painkiller budget on medications for workers who abuse painkillers, and workers who are abusing painkillers cost their employers twice as much in medical costs as non-abusers. Non-abusers typically cost employers $10,853 in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.castlighthealth.com\/press-releases\/new-study-reveals-32-percent-of-total-opioid-prescriptions-are-being-abused\/\">medical expenses<\/a>, and abusers can cost employers $19,450. The study suggests that those in the \u201cBaby Boomer\u201d age bracket are four times more likely to abuse opioids than younger \u201cMillennial\u201d patients. Their findings also showed that the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennessean.com\/story\/money\/industries\/health-care\/2016\/04\/20\/employers-impacted-opioid-abuse-study-castlight\/83289988\/\">majority<\/a> of major cities with higher-than-average opioids abuse rates are rural cities in the South.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennessean.com\/story\/money\/industries\/health-care\/2016\/04\/20\/employers-impacted-opioid-abuse-study-castlight\/83289988\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"5592\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/map-of-opioid-abuse-by-city\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Map-of-Opioid-ABuse-By-City.png\" data-orig-size=\"561,442\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Map of Opioid ABuse By City\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Map-of-Opioid-ABuse-By-City-300x236.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Map-of-Opioid-ABuse-By-City.png\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5592\" src=\"https:\/\/newversion.wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Map-of-Opioid-ABuse-By-City.png\" alt=\"Map of Opioid ABuse By City\" width=\"561\" height=\"442\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Map-of-Opioid-ABuse-By-City.png 561w, https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Map-of-Opioid-ABuse-By-City-300x236.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 561px) 100vw, 561px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine employers lose $10 billion a year on lack of productivity and absenteeism from work that is caused by opioid abuse. Though the CDC has mandated that prescriptions now carry a \u201cblack box\u201d warning and they have suggested stricter guidelines for prescribing, the crisis is already out of control and shows no signs of slowing down. Hopefully now that more studies are being released highlighting the serious implications, and more media attention is focused on the problem, more and more people will recognize the problem and try to help slow it down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The societal and emotional costs of the opioid epidemic are starting to gain more and more publicity as overdose deaths continue to rise. A new study has come out that highlights the economic costs, specifically on employers who are responsible for their employee\u2019s healthcare and for the costs of their work-related injuries. Castlight Health released [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-workers-comp-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Cost of Opioid Abuse For Employers - Workers&#039; Comp Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Cost of Opioid Abuse For Employers - Workers&#039; Comp Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The societal and emotional costs of the opioid epidemic are starting to gain more and more publicity as overdose deaths continue to rise. A new study has come out that highlights the economic costs, specifically on employers who are responsible for their employee\u2019s healthcare and for the costs of their work-related injuries. Castlight Health released [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Workers&#039; Comp Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-21T15:11:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-21T15:11:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/pharmacy-shelf.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"346\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"305\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kelia Scott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@wcinsights\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@wcinsights\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kelia Scott\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/\",\"name\":\"The Cost of Opioid Abuse For Employers - Workers&#039; Comp Insights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/pharmacy-shelf.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-21T15:11:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-21T15:11:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5597f459f108d6893bbbdd65fd48ecae\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/pharmacy-shelf.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/pharmacy-shelf.png\",\"width\":346,\"height\":305},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Cost of Opioid Abuse For Employers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/\",\"name\":\"Workers&#039; Comp Insights\",\"description\":\"Quick highlights from Workers&#039; Comp world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5597f459f108d6893bbbdd65fd48ecae\",\"name\":\"Kelia Scott\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/author\/kelia-scott\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Cost of Opioid Abuse For Employers - Workers&#039; Comp Insights","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/wcinsights.com\/the-cost-of-opioid-abuse-for-employers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Cost of Opioid Abuse For Employers - Workers&#039; Comp Insights","og_description":"The societal and emotional costs of the opioid epidemic are starting to gain more and more publicity as overdose deaths continue to rise. 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