Cost Containment Piracy

Friday, April 27, 2012 | 0

When looking for cutting edge activities in workers comp abuse, it's a good idea to start in California, where key stakeholders occasionally function like pirates in the Gulf of Aden. We have frequently focused on the burgeoning costs of opioids in the workers comp system. As we learned at the Workers Comp Research Institute conference last November, too many doctors who prescribe opioids have no idea what they are doing, no idea how to manage opioid-based treatment and no clue about the potential for harm.

In the entrepreneurial free-for-all that is California, we see the latest trend in opioid abuse: turning the "best practice" of drug testing into an opportunity to milk the system. (The details are available in Greg Jones's article at WorkCompCentral subscription required.)

Here's how it works: doctors who tend to over-prescribe opioids are jumping on the drug testing bandwagon: either through their own testing, or through contracted services, they are able to parlay a simple $200 drug test into a bill for $1,700 or even $3,000. The labs are playing with billing codes, performing the less expensive qualitative tests but charging for the more expensive quantitative tests. It's a clever scam: first over-prescribe, then drug test and over-bill.

The WorkCompCentral article quotes Howard Appel, president of Millennium Laboratories of San Diego: "I'm offended when workers' comp is paying $3,000 for a drug test that cost $200." Appel's company operates under a "responsibility pledge" where explicit ethical standards are used for drug testing and billing.

<b>Genuine Best Practices</b>

We remind Insider readers of the best practices that should accompany virtually any prescription for opioids:

1. Above all, use opioids sparingly; most prescriptions for opioids in the comp system are unnecessary, ill-advised and poorly managed.
2. Virtually all injured workers prescribed opioids should be evaluated for dependency issues prior to beginning an opioid regimen, drug tested prior to receiving opioids and throughout the course of treatment. Without these pre-conditions, opioid use is full of uncertainty and fraught with danger.
3. Ideally, opioids should come with a written contract and a User's Manual. Workers should be tested on their knowledge of the benefits and the risks.

Note that drug testing is a necessary component of the treatment protocol. The problem in California - and probably elsewhere - is that drug testing is of little value where opioids have been mis-prescribed in the first place. Under best practices, opioids are a last resort, rarely used and carefully managed. Under California scheming, they are over-prescribed, over-monitored and over-billed. All of which goes to show that you don't need a fishing boat and a few automatic rifles to become a pirate. A nice white coat and a plastic cup can work just as well.

<i>Jon Coppelman is a principal with Lynch Ryan & Associates, a Massachusetts-based employer consulting firm. This column was reprinted with his permission from his Workers Comp Insider blog.</i>