Rite Aid’s EnvisionRx takes steps to minimize opioid addiction risk
TWINSBURG, Ohio — In response to the nation’s opioid epidemic, Rite Aid’s pharmacy benefit manager, EnvisionRx, has enhanced its opioid and pain management program to make prescription fill limits and monitoring part of the program.
“As our nation endures a health crisis around opioid dependency, we are in a unique position to change the way opioids are used by our members,” said Frank Sheehy, CEO of pharmacy services and healthcare company EnvisionRxOptions. “Prescription fill limits and monitoring as a part of our pain management program will help minimize the risk of opioid addiction, especially for those patients who are being prescribed opioids for the first time.”
The EnvisionCare Pain Management program now includes pre-emptive prescription strategies, such as limiting first-time fills to seven days, prior authorizations on certain medications and shortened windows to refill prescriptions. This program aligns with the healthcare company’s overall pain management strategy, as well as the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
EnvisionCare Pain Management, which includes an opt-out feature for clients not wishing to implement this program, focuses on patient safety through communication, education and outreach, as well as interventions that avoid excessive dosing and dangerous drug combinations, ensuring pain is managed safely before and after the first dose.
The program contains pre-dispense, concurrent and retrospective measures, such as:
- Clinically focused safeguards, like a seven-day limit on prescriptions for patients who have not used an opioid in the past three months, step therapy for extended-release opioids and prior authorization for extremely high dosages (greater than 200 Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MME)).
- Safer dispensing practices, including real-time drug utilization reviews at the pharmacy to promote proper dispensing and point-of-sale alerts for excessively high dosages or those who have been prescribed dangerous drug combinations.
- Supplemental, detailed reviews, in addition to those the pharmacist performs at the time of dispense, to identify patients who may be filling high dosage opioids, and/or receiving prescriptions from multiple prescribers and dispensers. These reviews, paired with a shortened refill window requiring patients to have exhausted 85 percent of their medication supply before a refill will be dispensed, help identify dangerous long-term utilization and members who may be in need of intervention.
“We firmly believe that by reducing the number of opioids in the hands of a new patient right from the start, we can significantly decrease the possibility of dependence and addiction,” said Sheehy. “While opioid use can have positive results for pain management, we have a responsibility to protect our members by addressing pain in an appropriate way and better educating patients about the risks accompanying opioids.”
Filed under: General Problems
I AM afraid Nurse Kate. I am VERY afraid. Who are the “experts” that say that 200 mgs of “morphine equivalent” is an extremely high dosage of medication? The experts that went behind closed to doors to author a “guideline” tht they STILL claim is just a reccomendation for opioid presribing physicians? When MILLIONS of patients have used, and used effectively 200 mgs of morphine equivalent for years and decades with NOTHING but effective pain management and the physicians that prescribed and kept documentation on their patients can absolutely state without reservation that 100 mgs of morphine equivalent is NOT an effective dosage for one and all even with patients lives being enabled, and the personal pain of a patient made at LEAST tolerable.Methadone clinics are alive and well in NC IF you have $14.00 or so in cash to pay for a once a day visit to receive liquid, fast acting, methadone given in one dosage of anywhere from 30 mgs to 300 mgs EVERYDAY! If I could afford to go to a methadone clinic, sign a form stating that I was an incurable drug addict,, pay my fee, not fail a urine screening for a year and I can get ONE months take home medication. I have 23 YEARS of documentation, urine screening, pill counting and random orders to be at the pain managment facility in 15 minutes or I will be discharged form any further treatment. Is 23 years of pain management therapy with opioid medication without requesting an increase of dosage now for 7 years with documentation of effective pain management with ZERO negative health issues which has allowed me to remain employable and not bedridden not enough “eveidence” that I am a responsible opioid medication treated patient? I suppose not. If I CHOSE to attend a clinic, I could go tommorrow and receive at the FIRST visit to said clinic MORE of a dosage of “morphine equivalent” than I now receive after 23 years of being a responsible pain managment patient. Something VERY wrong here. Follow the money trail.. Yes, I am VERY afraid!
Disgusting as well as the ramblings of the Attorney General this morning on NBC. I have highly qualified physicians who care for my disabling chronic conditions and I am sick at heart that Big Pharma is thinking that they know my needs and systems better. Their blanket logorythms regardless of gender, size, age, allergies etc. are beyond belief. Be afraid!