{"id":45843,"date":"2017-10-05T06:34:14","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T06:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=45843"},"modified":"2017-10-05T06:34:14","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T06:34:14","slug":"cigna-to-end-oxycontin-painkiller-coverage-signs-contract-for-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/health\/cigna-to-end-oxycontin-painkiller-coverage-signs-contract-for-alternative.html","title":{"rendered":"Cigna to end OxyContin painkiller coverage, signs contract for alternative"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Cigna to end OxyContin painkiller coverage, signs contract for alternative<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Cigna to end OxyContin painkiller coverage, signs contract for alternative:- Amid a growing U.S. opioid addiction, health insurer Cigna Corp will stop covering OxyContin, the opioid painkiller sold by Purdue Pharma LP, as of Jan. 1 and will instead cover an equivalent with a formulation less vulnerable to abuse, the company said on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">The insurer has signed a \u201cvalue-based contract\u201d with Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc for Xtampza ER, an extended-release oxycodone equivalent that cannot be made more fast-acting through cutting or crushing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Under the contract, Collegium will reduce the cost of the medication for many of Cigna\u2019s benefit plans. Cigna said the contract makes the drug maker \u201cfinancially accountable\u201d if prescriptions exceed a specific daily dose threshold. The company did not immediately respond to requests for details.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Cigna said it believes that linking financial terms to dosage may encourage more education to prevent overprescribing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids were involved in over 33,000 deaths in 2015, the latest year for which data is available, and the death rate has continued rising, according to estimates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Purdue Pharma has been sued by several states and local governments who accuse the OxyContin maker of deceptive marketing practices that have contributed to a national opioid addiction epidemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Cigna is notifying customers with current OxyContin prescriptions and their doctors of the upcoming change, but individuals who have started using OxyContin for hospice care or cancer treatments will continue to have the medication covered in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">The insurer said it will consider approving coverage for OxyContin if a doctor feels the drug is medically necessary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 8pt\">Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-cigna-opioids\/cigna-to-end-oxycontin-painkiller-coverage-signs-contract-for-alternative-idUSKBN1C932L<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/health\/cigna-to-end-oxycontin-painkiller-coverage-signs-contract-for-alternative.html\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"social\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #ffffff !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 630px !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cigna to end OxyContin painkiller coverage, signs contract for alternative Cigna to end OxyContin painkiller coverage, signs contract for alternative:- Amid a growing U.S. opioid addiction, health insurer Cigna Corp will stop covering OxyContin, the opioid painkiller sold by Purdue Pharma LP, as of Jan. 1 and will instead cover [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[70317,47904,47903,106,48026],"class_list":["post-45843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-cigna-to-end-oxycontin-painkiller-coverage-signs-contract-for-alternative","tag-current-health-news","tag-diseases-and-conditions","tag-latest-health-news","tag-womens-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}