Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • ESG: THE NEW IMPERATIVE
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • COVID-19
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Transformation
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Digital Health
  • Insights
    • ACA 10 Years After
    • Best Practices
    • Special Reports
    • Innovations
  • Opinion
    • Bold Moves
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Vital Signs Blog
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top 25 Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Digital Health Transformation Summit
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Supply Chain
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - Digital Health
    • - Future of Staffing
    • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Video Series - The Check Up
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
  • Data Center
    • Data Center Home
    • Hospital Financials
    • Staffing & Compensation
    • Quality & Safety
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Data Archive
    • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
    • Surveys
    • Data Points
  • MORE +
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Newsletters
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Providers
September 16, 2017 01:00 AM

Pharma supply chain ramps up technology to battle opioid epidemic

Alex Kacik
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    AP PHOTO
    Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine handles a box of Narcan during a news conference to announce a program and pilot study in Hamilton County to more than quadruple distribution of the opioid overdose-reversing drug.

    Mimi Hart has filled plenty of prescriptions at her independent pharmacy in Cincinnati, but one seemed a little off.

    It was a prescription for a large quantity of high-strength oxycodone, an opioid widely prescribed to manage pain. The paper felt peculiar and the handwriting didn't look like the doctor's signature, said Hart, the owner of Hart Pharmacy in the West Price Hill neighborhood.

    "You have to be vigilant," she said. "The feel of the paper is different once it goes through acetone—you can tell. We have a phone chain for bad scripts, and sure enough, they had been to multiple pharmacies."

    The fake prescription was a part of an elaborate drug ring orchestrated several years ago, where people seeking the addictive painkiller would use acetone to wash off the ink and create a new prescription. After making several calls to neighboring pharmacies, Hart found out that the pill-seekers went to multiple pharmacies in the Cincinnati area to try and score more. She passed on the information to the Cincinnati drug diversion law enforcement officer, who apprehended the criminals.

    The Takeaway

    As the spread of opioids devastates cities, counties and states throughout the country, there has been a major push to pinpoint the vulnerabilities in the pharmaceutical supply chain to stem the flow of illicit prescription drugs.

    Hart is on the front lines of the fight against opioid abuse. As the spread of opioids continues to devastate cities, counties and states throughout the country, there has been a major push to pinpoint the vulnerabilities in a fragmented pharmaceutical supply chain to stem the flow of illicit prescription drugs.

    Public officials and regulators are hopeful that an onslaught of lawsuits will hold bad actors accountable for neglecting red flags and recoup millions of taxpayer dollars spent in detaining, treating and rehabilitating opioid abusers.

    At the same time, stakeholders throughout the industry are working to improve physician awareness and leverage emerging technology to slow the epidemic.

    "It all comes down to monitoring and having the right tools in place," said Justin Schneider, vice president of clinical operations, pharmacy, cardiology, stroke and supply chain at Sinai Health System in Chicago. "Certainly there are different types of monitoring programs at the state and federal level, but it's clearly not enough because we see this crisis persist and grow."

    The pressure to rein in the crisis, which claims about 91 American lives a day, builds as the death tolls—and related legal actions—mount. The lawsuits pursue different paths to curb opioid distribution—taking aim at distributors' and pharmacies' reporting practices and targeting manufacturers' marketing tactics.

    From 2010 through 2015, the largest drug distributors sold more than 290 million opioids in Hamilton County alone, leading to an average of four overdoses a day in Cincinnati and totaling 174 heroin overdoses over six days in August 2016, according to a suit filed by Cincinnati authorities. A record 4,050 people died of drug overdoses in Ohio last year.

    The cities of Cincinnati and Birmingham, Ala., are two of the latest municipalities that have filed lawsuits against AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corp. for allegedly pushing through suspiciously large and frequent orders of opioids that they claim have fueled the epidemic. The Cherokee Nation filed a similar suit claiming that pharmacies like CVS Health habitually ignored red flags in questionable prescription orders that would require further investigation. They join a handful of other cities and counties, including several in Ohio and West Virginia, that lodged comparable complaints.

    Cardinal Health said the lawsuits are misguided because the company does not manufacture the drugs or promote or prescribe prescription medications to the public and actively combats the diversion of opioids. While the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is working on a new monitoring guidance for suspicious prescriptions, there has been a lack of clarity about the reporting requirements under the Controlled Substances Act and how distributor responsibilities and expectations have shifted over time, some experts said.

    "The role of pharmacies, PBMs, distributors and hospitals in how and when they alert the DEA isn't clearly defined," Schneider said.

    South Carolina also recently sued drug manufacturer Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin and other opioids, claiming that Purdue misleads physicians and patients through allegedly deceptive marketing practices. The state alleged that the company created a public nuisance and violated unfair trade practices act by inflating the benefits of opioids and downplaying their addictive nature while discrediting the quality of newer drugs that deter abuse.

    Purdue, which reached a $635 million settlement with the federal government in 2007 related to alleged misbranding of OxyContin, vigorously denied the allegations and said it is working with local officials to find solutions.

    "I've spent most of my career suing the pharmaceutical industry. The fact is it rarely changes," said Paul Hanly Jr. of the law firm Simmons Hanly and Conroy, which has filed lawsuits on behalf of eight New York counties.

    The hope is that the drug companies would pay jurisdictions to cover treatment and rehabilitation costs for decades to atone for a protracted "campaign of misinformation," Hanly said. "These settlements seem like a cost of doing business. I'm hopeful but certainly not optimistic that things will change."

    The misleading marketing cases stand on stronger legal footing, Hanly said. Manufacturers send marketing materials to the medical community that provide tangible evidence of "uniformly misrepresenting the harm of opioids," he said.

    The numbers tell the story, Hanly said. "If you are selling 10,000 OxyContin pills a month to CVS through West Virginia and then it goes up to 100,000 and eventually 500,000, something is going on there. These companies have an obligation through the federal Controlled Substances Act to report to the DEA and it seems that oftentimes they didn't do that."

    Distributors denounce those types of allegations. They are not responsible for the proliferation of opioid prescriptions in the U.S., said John Parker, senior vice president of communications at the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, the industry representative for drug distributors.

    "Believing so, as some allege, defies common sense and lacks a fundamental understanding of how the pharmaceutical supply chain actually works and is regulated," Parker said in a statement. "Further, because of our role, we cannot and should not interfere in the doctor-patient relationship. That said, we do work closely with law enforcement and report all sales of controlled opioids to the DEA."

    The DEA has tried to limit opioid distribution by curbing its quota system, which it sets to meet the medical, scientific, research, industrial, export and reserve demands. The agency institutes a quota system for controlled substances that was designed to limit the quantities of drug ingredients and eliminate diversion from "legitimate channels of trade." While the DEA has recently reduced its production quota of opioids by 25% or more last year, that isn't enough, public officials said. Consequently, that has made it difficult to source the drugs for those who truly need them and led to a surge in heroin use, critics said.

    It was the first reduction of its kind in more than two decades, but DEA-approved opioid production volumes remain high—including a 55% increase in oxycodone levels in 2017 compared with 2007, according to a letter to the DEA signed by 16 senators.

    Between 1993 and 2015, the DEA allowed production of oxycodone to increase 39-fold, along with drastic increases of other opioids, the letter said. The number of opioid prescriptions increased from 76 million in 1991 to more than 245 million prescriptions in 2014, resulting in a dramatic rise in overdoses.

    "Further reductions, through the DEA's existing quota-setting authority, are necessary to rein in this epidemic," according to the senators, who also called for more transparency in the quota-setting process.

    The Joint Commission released new pain assessment and management standards on Aug. 31 that will require hospitals to provide nondrug pain treatment options such as chiropractic therapy and give physicians and pharmacists access to Prescription Drug Monitoring Program databases. They must also better monitor high-risk patients who are prone to opioid addiction.

    In 2010, Florida implemented legislation mandating that pain management clinics register with the state, adopt minimum safety standards including use of counterfeit-proof prescription pads and submit to annual inspections.

    The changes came after a crackdown on wholesalers in the state that were supplying pill mills. Pharmacists in Florida now have to enroll in substance abuse and prevention classes when renewing their licenses, said Wayne Russell, vice president of pharmacy at Premier.

    Specialized training also should be required for physicians prescribing drugs like fentanyl, experts say. The doctors would have to sign documents saying where they have completed the training and that they recognize the risks.

    To further limit the spread of opioids, their uses should also be narrowed from the "open-ended" chronic long-term pain treatment to cancer and traumatic injuries, and the drugs should be administered in a controlled hospital setting, they said.

    Until recently, pharmacists relied on their intuition and network of other pharmacists they would call if a suspicious prescription surfaced. Today, nearly all prescription pads are tamper-proof, if physicians haven't already transitioned to electronic prescribing. More Cincinnati doctors are using e-prescribing, said Hart, who lauded the trend. And more states are also using interstate communication systems that track the types of prescriptions and where they are filled.

    The Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System is one of the statewide databases that collect real-time information on controlled substances sold to pharmacies, including when and where they are dispensed. The statewide databases feed into an interoperable communication system called PMP Interconnect that connects pharmacists throughout the country to track usage, prescribing and dispensing patterns. The prescription monitoring program, headed by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, was started in 2011 and is online in 42 states, with more in the queue.

    Providers in 27 states have also integrated PMP Gateway into their EHR systems, bringing prescription-usage and -filling trends to their fingertips. It alerts physicians when a patient has received several opioid prescriptions over a short period of time, among other behaviors.

    These types of systems are vital in curbing the number of counterfeit prescriptions, advocates argue. Some 33,000 illegal online pharmacies are operating at any given time, driven by attractive profit margins and fragmented regulations, according to the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies. A new push for ".pharmacy" domains has helped patients identify legitimate sources for online drugs, said Libby Baney, ASOP's executive director.

    Arming providers, pharmacists and law enforcement with interoperable data is crucial and those throughout the industry should be encouraged or even compelled to buy in, Baney said.

    "Policy and enforcement have not kept pace with the consolidation of the supply chain and distribution of medicines, particularly with online sales," she said. "We need to harmonize domestic and international regulations and increase transparency."

    But the databases are not a panacea, critics warn, and much more needs to be done to improve coordination among regulators and those in the drug supply chain.

    Under the recently implemented Drug Supply Chain Security Act, manufacturers will need to create individual serial numbers for every prescription, which ideally would help determine where the drugs came from and how they got to the patient.

    "We will start to get a lot more visibility in not only the flow of these drugs but understand who held them and where they traveled along the supply chain, said Paul Cianciolo, who heads health systems development for TraceLink, a company that provides a digital track-and-trace network for the pharmaceutical supply chain.

    Outside of litigation and adapting regulations that aim to pinch opioid diversion, there has been progress in the adoption of e-prescriptions, stepped-up efforts to inform physicians about better prescribing habits and alternative paid treatments, as well as an increase in the number of PBMs, pharmacies, providers and wholesalers that are restricting the volume of opioids they dole out. Yet, they have to strike a delicate balance between restricting the harmful drugs while still allowing access to those who need them.

    Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare is looking to cut the number of opioids prescribed for acute pain across its entire system by 40% by the end of next year. PBMs and pharmacies are following suit with similar programs, but providers worry that restricting opioids could hinder patient care. In the Chicago area, DuPage Medical Group's physicians are exploring ways to limit post-operative pain through different types of treatment, said Michael Kasper, CEO of the largest independent physician group in Illinois.

    But it will take some time for the pending lawsuits, new regulations and safer prescribing habits to catch up, pharmacist Hart said.

    "It's probably going to get worse before it gets better," she said. "Fentanyl is killing the majority of the people here (in Cincinnati). Until we get less people on opioids and heroin and get them into treatment, the safe prescribing habits will need time to catch up. I see that as maybe 10 years down the line."

    Hart also helps run two drug rehabilitation facilities that provide naloxone for addicts, one of which helps young families navigate recovery. "That is really difficult because the kids pay a high price," she said. "We need to do more."​

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    rural-health1.png
    Transgender patients in rural states struggle to find doctors
    The Check Up: John Nickens, LCMC Health
    The Check Up: John Nickens, LCMC Health
    Most Popular
    1
    More healthcare organizations at risk of credit default, Moody's says
    2
    Centene fills out senior executive team with new president, COO
    3
    SCAN, CareOregon plan to merge into the HealthRight Group
    4
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan unveils big push that lets physicians take on risk, reap rewards
    5
    Bright Health weighs reverse stock split as delisting looms
    Sponsored Content
    Modern Healthcare A.M. Newsletter: Sign up to receive a comprehensive weekday morning newsletter designed for busy healthcare executives who need the latest and most important healthcare news and analysis.
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • COVID-19
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Digital Health
    • Insights
      • ACA 10 Years After
      • Best Practices
      • Special Reports
      • Innovations
    • Opinion
      • Bold Moves
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • Vital Signs Blog
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
        • Top 25 Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Supply Chain
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - Digital Health
        • - Future of Staffing
        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Video Series - The Check Up
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Data Center
      • Data Center Home
      • Hospital Financials
      • Staffing & Compensation
      • Quality & Safety
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Data Archive
      • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
      • Surveys
      • Data Points
    • MORE +
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Newsletters
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing