The overuse of opioid therapy in the U.S. to treat chronic pain is reaching an “epidemic” level, according to the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
When dealing with workplace injuries, reliance on narcotics to deal with pain is a road riddled with rising Workers' Compensation costs for employers and insurers. And for employees, the use of narcotics poses the potential for addiction and long delays in a productive return to work.
For example, a 2008 report by the California Workers' Compensation Institute, based on a study that tracked 166,000 Workers' Comp claims over the course of three years, linked the use of opioid painkillers to long disability periods and high treatment costs.
Recommended For You
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
