After positive pilot results, Florida Blue said it plans to expand its opioid management program.
The payer partners with pharmacy benefit manager Prime Therapeutics for the program designed to save the lives of Medicare members who have opioid prescriptions, according to a July 18 Florida Blue news release.
At-risk Florida Blue Medicare members were identified using predictive modeling based on member claims data and Prime's opioid registry, according to the news release. The program emphasized education and safety for new and existing opioid medication users.
Members with new opioid prescriptions received information that described what an opioid is, how opioids work and how to safely use and dispose of them. New users in the pilot consumed 37 percent fewer morphine milligram equivalents than the control group. Twenty-nine percent more new users in the pilot voluntarily stopped using opioids than in the control group.
Members with existing opioid prescriptions received information about the safe use and disposal of opioids. The material encouraged members to speak with a physician or pharmacist about the opioid overdose-reversal medication naloxone. Ten percent of those in the pilot group stopped using opioids through the follow-up period, which resulted in a 7 percent reduction in opioid prescriptions and a 2.8 percent increase in naloxone prescriptions.