CVS is finally trying to do something about the opioid epidemic:
Drug-store chain CVS Health announced Thursday that it will limit opioid prescriptions in an effort to combat the epidemic that accounted for 64,000 overdose deaths last year alone.
Amid pressure on pharmacists, doctors, insurers and drug companies to take action, CVS also said it would boost funding for addiction programs, counseling and safe disposal of opioids.
[...] The company's prescription drug management division, CVS Caremark, which provides medications to nearly 90 million people, said it would use its sweeping influence to limit initial opioid prescriptions to seven-day supplies for new patients facing acute ailments.
It will instruct pharmacists to contact doctors when they encounter prescriptions that appear to offer more medication than would be deemed necessary for a patient's recovery. The doctor would be asked to revise it. Pharmacists already reach out to physicians for other reasons, such as when they prescribe medications that aren't covered by a patient's insurance plan.
The plan also involves capping daily dosages and initially requiring patients to get versions of the medications that dispense pain relief for a short period instead of a longer duration.
[...] "The whole effort here is to try to reduce the number of people who are going to end up with some sort of opioid addiction problem," CVS Chief Medical Officer Troyen Brennan said in an interview.
It appears this initiative is limited to initial filling of prescriptions — there is no mention of changes in the handling of refills.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @01:32PM
Because no-one votes for a sheriff who is soft on crime. Doesn't matter *WHY*, just that he is or looks soft on crime.
Chances are, with the data exchange they do with the DEA, the world's largest extra-legal police force, they got sick and tired of the continuous questions they received and just said "fuck this shit, we'll bend".
Just take a look at the DEA and figure out how much money is involved in just running that agency, how many people, and more importantly, how many companies, would lose money if you scaled back the 'war on drugs'. Onces you've got that figured out, you'll know exactly why these things happen and why suddenly this opioid crisis is a thing. The DEA is the equivalent of a mafia enforcer, with the difference that the mafia lives by a code, the DEA lacks that bit.