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Returning to the opioid issue

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I'm back after three weeks of traveling in Vietnam.

It was a great adventure, beautiful country, incredible food, energetic cities, and a young population that has embraced capitalist market practices.

But readers may have noticed that I have not posted a blog entry since before leaving for vacation. That will change now that I am back in front of my computer.

Just as before I left for vacation, opioid abuse in the comp system remains a hot topic.

I returned to find a Pennsylvania appellate court ruling that an employer is responsible for a worker who died from an overdose of pain medications prescribed for a work injury.

It's precisely the type of ruling that work comp experts warned about when they first started noticing a growing number of comp claimants being treated with powerful pain medications that were not meant to treat typical work injuries.

A short story on that decision is available here and the court ruling can be read here.

To help the workers comp industry understand the overall opioid problem and learn some potential solutions, Business Insurance posted what we call a “Featured Solution Arc” on the topic.

The Solution Arc is available here and includes a number of stories on the scope of opioid use in workers comp and what some employers, insurers, and TPAs are doing about it.