Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

2014

Department

Pharmacy Practice

Abstract

Recent legislative and regulatory activity designed to address controlled substance diversion and overuse of narcotics is having a significant impact on prescription drug utilization and patient care in the United States. Although providers and patients are the focus of these new requirements, the designers and implementers of formularies and medication use protocols need to be aware of salient features of these initiatives. Formulary drug product selection, prior authorization procedures and drug utilization strategies should be reconsidered in accordance with the changes in controlled substance oversight.

The primary focus of this article involves recent approaches to controlling the illegal acquisition of licit prescriptions, particularly opioid pain relievers (OPR). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2008 OPRs were involved in 74% of the 20,000 fatal prescription drug overdoses in the United States. This represents an increase of over 300% since 1999 and these fatalities now exceed death by cocaine and heroin combined. [Interestingly, the death rate varied five-fold by state, largely reflecting different levels of opioid regulation and oversight. They also noted that sales of OPRs quadrupled between 2000 and 2010 and that OPR abuse cost health insurers over $72 billion annually in healthcare costs.

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