A Costly and Deadly Mix: Painkillers in the Workplace

Courts are forcing employers to pay for detox treatment as well as death benefits to families of injured employees whose addiction and death resulted from opioids prescribed for work injuries — even when an employee took more than the prescribed dose or mixed the pills with alcohol.

That’s the conclusion of a new paper from the National Safety Council (NCS).

Injured workers are frequently prescribed opioid pain medications — more than 25% of workers’ compensation prescription drug claim costs in 2011 were for opioid pain medications. The NCS revealed that injured workers who take opioid prescription painkillers double their risk of being disabled a year later and their lost-time workers’ comp claims are 900% higher than those of workers who didn’t take the painkillers. Even workers who are prescribed just one opioid have average total claims costs that are four times higher than similar claims for employees who were not given a prescription.

Not only do these drugs increase medical claims and workers compensation costs and raise the risk of addiction, but evidence indicates that the increased use of these drugs does not result in better treatment outcomes.

What’s truly alarming is that death rates because of an overdose have doubled in the past decade as more injured employees become addicted to pain pills such as oxycodone, methadone and hydrocodone, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, overdose deaths from prescription opioids now exceed deaths from both heroin and cocaine combined.

According to Deborah A.P. Hersman, president and CEO of the National Safety Council, “Employers have a moral and legal responsibility to protect their employees. Addressing the use and abuse of prescription painkillers is as important as identifying drug and alcohol abuse in the workplace.”

To protect injured workers and mitigate liability, the NSC recommends that employers screen injured workers for depression and other mental health conditions and prior substance abuse. The council also suggests that all pharmaceuticals be purchased and managed by a pharmacy benefit manager, many of which have systems to flag dangerous prescribed drug combinations and suspicious prescribing patterns.

The NCS also recommends that employers:

• educate workers about the risks of opioidst
• train supervisors to identify impaired employees
• work with insurance carriers to identify inappropriate opioid prescribing
• ensure medical providers follow prescribing guidelines and use state prescription drug monitoring programs which track prescribing history
• expand drug testing program to include all common opioids

Employers should also remember that substance abuse treatment and recovery centers can a great source of assistance. The trained clinicians at Kiva Recovery can teach you and your managers about the warning signs of drug abuse and work with you to determine how best to get troubled employees the help they need.

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The trusted resource in addiction treatment, Kiva Recovery’s groundbreaking model focuses on the individual and the strengths within each of us. Kiva’s treatment approach aims to replace addiction with solution-focused, growth-oriented strategies focusing on Lifelong Recovery through Holistic Health, Positive Character Building through Continuous Character Growth, and Life Satisfaction through Contentment. The Kiva Recovery treatment center is located 35 miles from downtown Chicago in the beautiful northern suburbs of Lake County, IL. To learn more, please visit www.KivaRecovery.com.