CVS Health highlights efforts to stem opioid abuse tide

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — On the heels of its bringing nonprescription naloxone to patients in Arizona, CVS Health highlighted the reach and scale of the ongoing opioid crisis, as well as its efforts to help combat the roughly 91 deaths due to opioids that happen every days, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among its efforts has been increasing public awareness and gauging how Americans understand the crisis. CVS health noted that it conducted opinion polls that found 3-in-4 Americans believe the majority of or some prescription drug abuse is tied to people taking medications prescribed to somebody else. Along with that statistic, the company found that close to half of those surveyed are concerned about potential misuse of their unused medications.

One of the keys to preventing misuse, the company said, is ensuring proper medication disposal, given that 1-in-3 of those surveyed said they have unused medication in its home. Through a collaboration with the Partnership for Drug Free Kids, CVS Health created its Medication Disposal for Safer Communities program, which to date has provided more than 762 disposal units in 43 states and collected more than 81.6 metric tons.

Besides its drug disposal efforts, the company also has worked to prevent drug diversion by recommending such prescription drug monitoring program policy changes as mandatory use of PDMP data at the point of prescribing, daily PDMP data submission from pharmacies to state databases and PDMP interoperability. It also now has naloxone available without a prescription in 41 states as of May 2017, and its Pharmacists Teach program brings local pharmacists to high school health classes to talk about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.