Ameritox: Illicit Substances Found in About 8% of Workers' Comp Drug Tests

Chronic pain patients checked for illicit substance use tested positive 16% of the time when Medicaid paid for the test, twice the rate seen for workers’ compensation payers, newly released data show. A positive rate of about 8% was also seen when Medicare or a commercial insurance company was the payer, according to research from Ameritox, a company that provides drug-monitoring services. The company presented the data Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Pain Society. The data came from 450,000 patient samples collected nationwide over nearly three years. The Ameritox data...