Drug costs send workers' comp bills soaring: insurers hard put to contain expenses with utilization of medications on the rise.(Take Your Medicine)

National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, October, 2004 by Hays, Daniel

INCREASED USE OF COSTLY prescription pharmaceuticals has been having a greater financial impact on the workers' compensation system than rising drug prices, but that trend could be ending, a leading data group reports. The research by the Boca Raton-based National Council on Compensation Insurance also revealed that the recently recalled anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx was third among the top-10 most costly prescribed drugs paid for by workers' comp insurers from 1997 to 2002.

Among different varieties of drugs, the workers' comp system spent more on painkillers--54 percent--than any other type, the study found. Muscle relaxants accounted for 18 percent of payments for prescriptions, and antidepressants another 15 percent. NCCI said that prescription drugs'...

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