Bundled-Payment Addiction Program Starts Seeing Results

Not all injured workers who have received treatment through a workers’ comp bundled-payment addiction program at the University of California, Los Angeles, have been on massive doses of opioids. One patient, who hurt her back while working as a librarian, was taking just a couple of hydrocodone pills to relieve pain before taking her dog out for a walk. In contrast, another patient had been on chronic opioid therapy for 16 years and was taking high-potency fentanyl through a skin patch, and fentanyl “lollipops,” in addition to other drugs, including benzodiazepines. What m...