Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, demonstrates the abilities of specially formulated opioid painkillersto resist tampering, lessening their potential for abuse. (Photo by Joey Bunch/The Denver Post)
Pardon his pun, but Colorado Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Loveland, says he’s “putting the hammer down” on prescription drug abuse. His pun was reality Tuesday afternoon when he used a hammer to try to smash a tamper-resistant painkiller for the House Public Health Care and Human Services Committee Tuesday afternoon.
That’s important because addicts often can’t get the instant, intense high they want from digesting pills, which can deliver a slower release of the euphoria-causing properties. As a result, one method of abuse is to crush the pill to either swallow the powder snort it or even inject it.
The bill would prevent health plan providers from substituting the cheaper old-fashioned pills when a doctor specifies on the prescription “dispense as written.” House Bill 1214 will be up for a committee vote when the group reconvenes next Tuesday afternoon. The bill is bipartisan with Senate sponsorship from Sen. John Cooke, R-Greeley, who is the former Weld County sheriff.
Want to find out why I’m bringing a hammer to cmte today? Check out Public Health and Human Services at 130pm
— Jonathan Singer (@Singer4Colorado)
The bill has a long list of health-care supporters. Singer read off a list of endorsements from medical organizations and drug-prevention initiatives to the committee.
Dr. Gareth Shemesh, a Denver physician who has specialized in pain management for 30 years, told the committee it was “an exciting tool to reduce the incidents of abuse.”
Who doesn’t support the bill? Insurers such as Kaiser Permanente and Blue Cross Blue Shield, whose representatives testified that the tamper-resistant medication could cost them 40 times as much as generic drugs. The true cost is masked by a co-pay for customers, but insurers would have to pass on those costs in the form of higher premiums, they said.
Singer contends there’s a bigger picture for lawmakers to consider.
“We have to look at the long-term costs,” he said after the hearing. “The fact is as this becomes a more popular technology, the cost is going to go down. At the same time, we need to look at the long-term cost of keeping someone in jail who has a drug-abuse problem that led to crime.
“How much does it cost someone to go through years of counseling when they find themselves addicted to prescription painkillers? What are ambulance costs when someone overdoses?”
The summary of states:
The bill prohibits an opioid analgesic drug product that is not abuse-deterrent to be substituted for an abuse-deterrent opioid analgesic drug product if a health care provider prescribes an abuse-deterrent opioid analgesic drug product to a patient and the prescription includes the instructions “dispense as written”.
A carrier must cover the abuse-deterrent opioid analgesic drug product at the lowest cost-sharing level as an opioid analgesic drug product. A carrier cannot require treatment failure with an opioid analgesic drug product that is not abuse-deterrent prior to providing coverage for the abuse-deterrent opioid analgesic drug product if the prescribing health care provider determines that the covered person would benefit from the abuse-deterrent opioid analgesic drug product.
