Impact of a retrospective drug utilization review program on changing opioid prescribing behavior

Background: The opioid epidemic has reached unprecedented heights, and as federal drug policy efforts have focused on improving opioid prescribing, so have managed care organizations become increasingly concerned about developing strategies to impact prescribing behavior. To this end, Humana, a large, national health plan, launched its High Dose Prescriber Program in 2016 to communicate with its highest volume opioid prescribers and ensure the safe prescribing of opioid medications. The program was a retrospective drug utilization review mailing campaign that included a customized DUR scorecard which detailed the opioid prescribing history and benchmarked each provider against the rates of their peers (based on specialization), other providers within the provider network, and against national rates.
Source: Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: research