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US Medicare And Opioids: Inspector General Sees Improvement

 
• By Grace Moser and Cole Werble

HHS is slowly changing its rhetoric on the use of prescription opioids – edging away from crisis to finding positive trends. A new OIG report on opioid use in Medicare Part D emphasizes sustained positive trends in naloxone rescue and medication assisted treatment alternatives to opioid use disorder.

Cloudscape
Medicare Part D data might be showing some rays of hope in the opioid epidemic.

The headline story on opioid use by beneficiaries in the US Medicare Part D program is shifting for the first time in five years from an emphasis on abuse and over-prescribing to positive trends towards a sustained decrease in overall opioid use accompanied by a continued upswing in the medication-assisted treatment drugs.

In a now-annual analysis of the trends for opioids in Part D, the Department of Health & Human Services’ Office...

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• By Derrick Gingery, Francesca Bruce, Cathy Kelly, and Nielsen Hobbs

Pink Sheet reporter and editors discuss the potential impact of the Most-Favored Nation drug pricing proposal on Europe, the United States, as well as the pharmaceutical industry.

PCMA, CVS, Cigna File Lawsuits Over ‘Dangerous’ Arkansas PBM Law

 
• By Tim Casey

The suits are an early test of the Arkansas law banning company ownership of PBMs and pharmacies in the state, as other states consider similar legislation.

Medicare Part D LIS Access Threatened By House Budget Bill’s Medicaid Obstacles

 
• By Cathy Kelly

An unintended consequence of a provision framed as an administrative change in the bill could significantly reduce medication adherence among low-income older adults and increase mortality, a study found.