Appeals court applies law changes to opioid dispensing
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An appeals court in Ohio ruled in favor of an employer who stopped paying for an injured worker’s opioids, applying 2019 changes to law that limits the prescribing of pain medications.
In an appeal set before the 10th District Court of Appeals of Ohio, Honda of America Manufacturing Inc. sought a a writ of mandamus ordering the Industrial Commission of Ohio vacate its 2019 order granting that the company pay for opioid prescriptions for a worker who suffered a back injury in 1997, according to documents in State ex rel. Honda of America Mfg., Inc., Relator, v. Industrial Commission of Ohio et al, filed in Franklin County, Ohio.
Following the commission’s 2019 order, a magistrate issued a decision that the commission abused its discretion in granting the medication reimbursement without considering changes to prescribing rules that went into effect in 2017.
Those changes include prescribing limits for opioids and requirements for documentation that reasonable alternatives to opioids have been tried and failed.
The appeals court affirmed, ordering a new hearing to properly apply the law to the request for reimbursement of opioid medication.
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