New Formulary Draft Puts Additional Squeezes on Opioid Scripts

Arkansas has pushed back the rollout of its drug formulary and reduced the amount of opioids the formulary will make available. The formulary now goes into effect July 1 and limits first-time opioid prescriptions to 50 morphine-equivalent doses (MED) per day, according to the latest draft of the document, released Monday. The new formulary draft also caps all subsequent prescriptions at 50 MED per day unless prior authorization is secured, in which case the prescription may be as strong as 90 MED per day, but no higher. A prescription of 50 MED per day translates to about two tablets of 15 ...