Ohio sets new requirements for chronic pain patients to get opiates
Columbus — Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Wednesday announced new prescribing rules for patients suffering pain for more than six weeks, hoping that the move will prevent opiate addiction and accidental overdoses.
Prescribers will be required to:
* talk with patients and consider non-medication treatment
* assess the function of the patient,
* look for signs of abuse,
* consult with specialists,
* offer a naloxone prescription
* take other steps when treating someone suffering from subacute or chronic pain.
The more opiates a patient is taking, the more steps will be required by prescribers.
“Here is the message: if you have chronic pain, you don’t need to worry that somehow your medication will be cut off. The message is you’re going to be treated in a very special way, not that patients aren’t being treated that way now but it’s going to force everyone in that whole world to slow down and think about the individual,” Kasich said at a press conference.
The new rules, which take effect in the fall, won’t apply to hospice or terminal cancer patients.
Related: Five steps Ohio has taken to combat the opioid crisis
Some 80 percent of Ohioans who died from an overdose in 2016 had a history of abusing prescribed controlled substances.
While the Kasich administration efforts have led to a drop in deaths attributed to prescribed drugs, fatal overdoses on illicit drugs have continued to fuel Ohio’s alarming numbers.
“Don’t do street drugs, okay? That’s what’s driving up the numbers,” Kasich said.
Related: Drug overdose deaths jump 33-percent in Ohio
Accidental drug overdoses killed 4,050 Ohioans in 2016, up 33 percent over the 3,050 fatalities in 2015. Driving the spike is the emergence of fentanyl, carfentanil and cocaine laced with fentanyl, the health department reported.
The increase came even after the state spent $1-billion into programs to combat the crisis, including expanding Ohio Medicaid, distributing naloxone to counteract overdoses, beefing up the state’s online prescription tracking database and writing stringent prescribing rules.
Related: Ohio to start new limits on painkiller prescriptions
Related: Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor opens up about her sons’ opioid addiction
Unintentional fatal drug overdoses in Ohio have been on a steady, stunning climb from 904 in 2004 to 4,050 in 2016. Since 2007, unintentional drug overdoses have been the leading cause of injury death in Ohio — ahead of motor vehicle accidents. As Ohio puts more controls on prescribed opiates, people with addictions turn to illicit drugs such as heroin.
State Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, said he supports reducing addiction but “I do not think just legislating the practice of medicine achieves this goal.”
Filed under: General Problems
“Don’t do street drugs, okay”. THAT is the answer? JC, if our medication was not reduced or denied, life, health, and appropriate pain management would NOT force the HUMANS in extreme, intolerable pain to seek alternative pain relief because the CDC and DEA sure don’t seem to give a damn. I have NEVER witnessed such a lack of understanding and compassion concerning some 10 million patints……ever in my 23 years of pain management needs. It IS a joke. Pain management patients in a VAST majority do NOT divert or abuse our ONLY effing means to manage lifetime, continuous pain. What the H will it take to receive pain medication in an effective dosage? We HAVE been justified to receive medication by documentation, pill counts, drug urine screening and visits to our doctors every 4 to 8 weeks. What is it that dot/gov wishes pain management patients to do next? Roll over and beg? Even our pets are euthanized by pet owners in an act of of humane COMPASSION because instead of watching our loved pets slowly die, we treat them humanely yet, patients with lifetime, continuous, intractable pain can NOT find pain management in ANY form now. Opioid medication is the best medicine has to offer right now, POSSIBLY with “allowed” studies of cannabis we can find a medium but, dot/gov does not reason or negotiate. You “experts” know what is best for pain management patients withour experiencing what we have experienced for years and decades. HOW the H can a rational “guideline” be arrived at withour resourcing the records and documents of successful pain management patients who HAVE used opioid medication…..responsibly?
Kasich is an idiot. His stance on every issue has gotten out of control. Hopefully he’ll be voted out soon before he does anymore damage.
Last year my 84 year old neighbor was put on nalaxone for her pain so doctors in Ohio have already been moving in that direction. If you live in Ohio vote Mary Taylor. Her record so far seems better than him. A rock would be better than Kasich.
“You don’t want to ever put the government or silly rules in between a patient and the ability of the physician to be able to practice their great, great gift,”
Did that horse’s ass seriously say that out loud while doing that exact thing for the past few years he has “ruled” over that state? Is he seriously THAT effin stupid???