One of America’s largest health insurers has cut its opioid prescriptions by 25%

Reuters

• Cigna has cut its opioid use among members by 25% since 2016, a year earlier than expected.
• To do that, Cigna worked with healthcare providers by giving them information about their prescribing patterns, and what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends, as well as how to identify high-risk patients. 
• Between 1990 and 2015, more than 183,000 people in the US died from overdoses related to prescription opioids.

Health insurer Cigna on Wednesday said it had cut its opioid use by 25% since 2016. 

In 2016, Cigna committed to lowering opioid use among its customers by 25% over three years. And in October 2017, the health insurer said it will no longer cover OxyContin, the branded version of the painkiller oxycodone. Cigna still covers generic oxycodone alternatives to OxyContin.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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