Another insurance only allowing 7 day pain meds and limiting the dosage, no matter what doc says.

Alcie, can you provide us the link about this?

I think I found what you are referring to. If the link does not work, put "Medscape, Express scripts Limits on Opioids Rankles Physicians" in google.

"Under the Express scripts program, dispensing pharmacies will, among other things, limit patients new to opioid therapy to a 7-day supply for their first prescription no matter whether their pain is acute or chronic and regardless of what the physician's prescription says.

Also, the default prescription will be for short-acting opioids. To obtain long-acting opioids for a first-time user, a physician needs prior authorization. Getting such permission also will be necessary for continuing opioid therapy beyond the initial 7 days"

Medscape-Express scripts Limits on Opioids Rankles Physicians-
www.medscape.com/viewarticle/884557

PS: for those who don't have access to Medscape, I tried googling other sources. Unfortunately, I did not find the complete story in any of the places I looked. Newspapers only wrote short fluff and made it sound not so bad.

I hope someone will keep looking and find something everyone can read.

PPS: CVS also limits to 10 days. They own Silver script, so I am even more anxious about seeing my doctor next month.

shaw31, the article states the 7 day limit applies to those new to opioid therapy. It also states it applies to acute and chronic pain. Your doctor will have to write Prior Authorization for more than 7 days

There is also a maximum limit of 200mg Morphine or Morphine Equivalent in a 24 hour period. You should only take breakthrough meds as needed. If you need them every day you need to talk to your doctor about increasing your extended release meds and adjusting your activity.

Just a follow up. I got my normal monthly scripts filled with no problem.

Unfortunately, it looks like things are going to get worse before they get better. History shows this keeps happening & cutting back on medical access to these meds really doesn't help. Research consistently shows that when there are more community programs, better (mental/behavioral) healthcare options & fewer law enforcement actions taken against drug users, abuse decreases. But that requires time & effort. It's much easier to blame doctors, patients, pharmacies & drug manufacturers than to try to help prevent & treat a complicated problem like addiction.

In Chicago, other than for cancer patients, it's now almost impossible to even find a doctor willing to write a script for Lyrica, much less an opioid. And I've yet to find something that my Part F (BCBS) drug insurance actually covers. They try to claim there's "no evidence" that opioids work after the first week or so. I have 10 years of personal experience that says otherwise, but nobody asked me. So, instead of being on pain meds, I'm on disability & struggle to hold down an entry-level job that is 3 hours a day. Last year (while on fentanyl) I was working full-time for a PR department. It seems the country feels that's a fair price to pay to pretend we're "doing something" about addiction. I think we're all just going to have to make our peace with this new reality.

Mercy,
I was more than happy to comply with UA's, contracts, pill counts, showing ID to pick up prescriptions and so forth. None of that was ever an issue for me. I had been doing all that for years.

As it happens, the doctors at Rush would still run UA's even though they only had me on amitriptylene. They want to be sure I'm not getting pain meds from anywhere else. It seems rather wasteful, but I willingly comply with all their requirements. After a lengthy search with the help of my PCP, neurologist & pain psychologist -- all of whom readily agreed that I was physically healthier, more productive & better able to manage higher level mental tasks while on opioids -- we were finally able to locate one doctor who was willing to prescribe Lyrica on a short-term basis. It's not covered by BCBS so I have to pay cash for it, but it's better than not being able to work at all. I take pride in being able to get out of the house & contribute to society. I wish I could do that more.

I do still believe that, as in times past, when society sees that restricting meds does nothing for addiction & causes much needless suffering and impacts our nation's productivity, there will be some changes made to try to address untreated pain. But that's probably still 10-15 years away. And, in a sense, I agree with you. A return to pain control in the future will more likely come from new (also potentially addicting) medications, rather than from reintroducing coverage for the ones that are currently on the market. We will benefit from that for a time & then addicts will start abusing those medications & the cycle will start all over again with blaming the prescription meds, effectively banning them & then having pain spiral out of control for millions of Americans.

Just on local news - CVS restrictions (to 7 days) re: opioids -
Exclusions do NOT include chronic pain :

http://wwlp.com/2017/08/16/express-scripts-to-limit-opioids-doctors-concerned/

M&G, I interpreted it as a first time user(for treatment of acute pain) with the limited number of days. In my mind this goes hand in hand with several articles I read awhile back about GP's being limited to 7-10 days for rxing pain meds for acute pain. I would hope no dr in his/her right mind would ever consider rxing an ER meds to an individual for acute pain.

We had someone here recently that did get their monthly supply of pain meds through Express scripts.

I do understand what you are saying.

However The recent state regulations have caused dr here to stop prescribing opioids. Period. And no longer seeing long-time patients.

If I understand online information, medical marijuana, while already 'legal' for maybe about a year now, is not being grown or dispensed yet. Have not discussed possibly using it w/new pm.. He has only prescribed one med & our conversations lead me to believe he will be having me try Hhmm, less 'strong' meds, just like I did w/previous Doctor. he does not prescribe opioids.

Once Medical Marijuana is legalized in a State it can take several years to determine who will grow it and who will be allowed to sell it. It is much more complicated than it appears.

I sincerely believe this over-prescribed & addiction thing is BS, its a smoke screen. Many years before the CDC & DEA reared their ugly heads & became involved, for several years I read numerous articles with all of these stats on the number of individuals that had taken a narcotic. The targeted age group was early 20's to 40. They had it categorized as individuals that had taken a narcotic for pain for a brief time, occasionally, all the way to people on disability taking narcotics daily. The bottom line in every report was the effect on our economy in 20 yrs because of the loss of time from work & the drain on the system. They could not discriminate an age bracket stating no one under a certain age could obtain a narcotic. Many years later look at where we are today. I knew back then things were heading for a huge change & my gut feeling was right. Sure, someone reading this will think, the old gal that posted this is a nut job, I don't think so. The focus was on the national economy. Anyway, just my thoughts. We already know the war on street drugs is a war they will never win & they know it too. Sure they can curtail them for a bit but for each one that is eliminated who knows how many more pop up that replaces that one.

I know from threads here in the past few years the ones using MM said the cost factor was very high & a lot of them simply could not afford it & had to continue with their daily pain meds. I am sure a lot it depends on the person's health issues.

I do not see anything improving for a CPer in the future & I am glad that I am not just starting the cp journey.