CWCI: Drop in Opioid Prescriptions More Pronounced in Comp

Declines in opioid use among injured workers exceeded the decline among the overall population from 2017 to 2023, the California Workers' Compensation Institute reports. CWCI said data from the state's Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System, or CURES, shows that 17.3% of the state's total population was receiving an opioid prescription in 2017 compared to 11.5% in 2023. CWCI reports that the number of California residents receiving opioid prescriptions fell by 34% to 4.5 million in 2023 from 6.8 million in 2017. Over the same period, the number of work comp...