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The opioid epidemic in workers’ comp

Employers can use these five strategies to manage opioid issues in their organizations and help injured workers heal.

By Mark Pew | Updated on December 19, 2017
With the best of intentions, health care professionals may prescribe addicting pain killers to injured workers, making the employee's return to work even more complicated. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Repercussions from opioid use in the United States continues at an epidemic level.

The CDC has documented there were 64,070 drug overdose deaths in 2016 and approximately 63% (around 40,000 total or 109 per day) of those deaths were related to opioids. Unfortunately, the trend is toward more powerful versions of opioids, transitioning from opioids that were legally prescribed, to heroin and now to illicit fentanyl and carfentanil.

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