Opiate abuse
Prescription opiate abuse is an epidemic in America; our population suffers from the results of over thirty years of mismanagement of prescription pain medications among providers and manufacturers as well as lack of information regarding the potential for substance abuse that these medicines have (Sofer, 2019). For this discussion, the focus will be on the efforts taken by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and its evidence-based approach to deal with this issue.
Acknowledging that substance abuse disorder is a disease was the first step that allowed funding allocation to this matter (Sofer, 2019). The CMS decided to take a multi-level approach to address the opioid crisis, with strategies involving all the major stakeholders. First, it disseminated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to prescribe narcotics among primary care providers safely. It also promoted the enforcement of prescription medication databases that allowed doctors and pharmacies to communicate more efficiently and reduce the potential for interaction and over medication. Lastly, to improve the current data that shows that only 20% of people with a substance abuse problem receive treatment, it expanded coverage for substance abuse treatment for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries (CMS, 2020).
While certainly there is a long road ahead of us to tackle the opioid epidemic, there is great potential in the measures taken by the CMS so far. According to Boller (2017), to improve patient safety, there should be a focus on interprofessional collaboration, patient-focused care, evidence-based practice, and an emphasis on quality and informatics. I believe that the measures taken by the CMS will set a reliable base for these goals to be met and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
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