Pubdate: Wed, 04 Jul 2001
Source: Charleston Daily Mail (WV)
Copyright: 2001 Charleston Daily Mail
Contact:  http://www.dailymail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/76
Author: Sam Tranum
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?186 (Oxycontin)

DRUG COSTING STATE

PEIA's Spending On Oxycontin Up 38 Percent

Wednesday July 04, 2001; 10:15 AM As law enforcement and drug 
rehabilitation professionals grapple with widespread abuse of the 
painkiller OxyContin, the amount the state spends on the drug 
continues to climb.

Delegate Mary Pearl Compton, D-Monroe, said the state should look 
into its rising OxyContin costs. She is chairwoman of the house 
committee on health and human resources.

The Public Employees Insurance Agency spent 38 percent more on 
OxyContin in the first 11 months of the 2000-2001 year than it did in 
the entire 1999-2000 financial year.

That's an increase from $589,000 to $812,000.

In their lists of drugs they spend the most on, the state Medicaid 
program and the Workers' Compensation Division have both ranked the 
drug in their top five.

Despite the rising costs and concerns about abuse, legislators and 
state officials say the drug is very good when used as it was 
intended.

"You would hate to deny anybody use of a drug that is certainly 
beneficial to their health, and in killing pain, it's certainly one 
that does," said Sen. Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, chairman of the 
Senate's committee on health and human resources.

That's part of the reason that when PEIA adopted a new list of 
preferred drugs, OxyContin was on it. PEIA members pay $15 for a 
33-day supply of drugs on the preferred list and $25 for drugs that 
are not on the list.

"If a person is cancer-stricken and they're terminal, that drug is 
very effective in pain remediation, and in that situation if its 
prescribed for what it's intended to do, we don't have any problems," 
said PEIA director Tom Susman.

"Unfortunately, it's become a drug of high abuse," said Felice 
Joseph, pharmacy benefits administrator for the agency.

Susman said the agency is not encouraging the drug's use by keeping 
it on the preferred provider list. In fact, he said, the agency 
recently instituted a program it hopes will clamp down on abuse of 
OxyContin and other drugs.

A letter he sent out in May outlined the program for the doctors the 
agency works with.

"The impetus for this program is the escalating use of OxyContin and 
other narcotics by citizens of West Virginia, as well as other states 
across the country," Susman wrote.

The letter says PEIA's prescription drug benefits manager, 
Merck-Medco, will contact doctors with patients who are using more 
than one doctor for controlled substance claims in a given 
three-month period.

Merck-Medco also will contact doctors with patients who ask for more 
than four controlled substances per quarter, or who are receiving 
more than 120 days of therapy with a controlled substance.

"It is our intention to proactively manage the use of this narcotic 
before PEIA is faced with the increases that Medicaid and Workers' 
Compensation have seen in (their) expenditures," Susman wrote. 
"Therefore, PEIA will be continually monitoring the utilization of 
OxyContin."

Susman said despite the sharp increase in the past year, OxyContin 
doesn't rank in the top 25 of PEIA's list of drugs it spends the most 
money on.

He said the agency spent $85 million on drugs this year. It spent 
$812,000 on OxyContin in the first 11 months of the 2000-2001 fiscal 
year.

Joseph said the drug never appears in PEIA's top 10 list. She said 
PEIA's 168,000 members are more likely to use cholesterol or diabetes 
medications than painkillers.

Susman said he believes increased awareness of OxyContin abuse helped 
bring PEIA's spending on the drug down in the closing months of the 
last financial year, though he hadn't seen month-by-month numbers yet.
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe