Insurers Behind Medicare’s ‘Big Brother’ Opioid Policy
/By Pat Anson, Editor
The insurance industry appears to have played a major role in the development of a new strategy by the federal government to combat the abuse of opioid pain medication.
As Pain News Network has reported, the plan calls on pharmacists to report suspicious activity by doctors who prescribe opioids to Medicare and Medicaid patients (see “Medicare Takes ‘Big Brother’ Approach to Opioid Abuse”). Individual profiles of patients, their behavior, and opioid use would also be created and shared among insurance providers.
The plan was outlined earlier this month by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in the agency’s proposed “Opioid Misuse Strategy.”
The CMS plan closely follows a 62-page “white paper” prepared by the Healthcare Fraud Prevention Partnership (HFPP), a coalition of private insurers, law enforcement agencies, and federal and state regulators formed in 2013 to combat healthcare fraud.
The white paper, however, goes far beyond fraud prevention by recommending policies that will determine how a patient is treated by their doctor, including what medications should be prescribed. It states that all physicians should follow the opioid prescribing guidelines released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even though the guidelines are voluntary and explicitly state they are not intended for all prescribers.
The white paper was drafted largely by insurance companies – called “Partner Champions” -- including Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Highmark, Humana, Kaiser Permanente and the Centene Corporation.
“These HFPP Partner Champions have committed themselves to the creation of an HFPP White Paper that describes the best practices for serious consideration by all healthcare payers and other relevant stakeholders to effectively address and minimize the harms of opioids,” the white paper states.
“Through coordinated action, payers, including members of the HFPP, have the opportunity to dramatically influence and reduce opioid misuse in the U.S. Simple actions performed systematically across a large group of stakeholders can considerably decrease the toll of prescription opioid misuse and OUD (opioid use disorder) in the U.S.”
Physicians and Patients Left Out
No other stakeholders in healthcare, such as physicians, pharmacists, hospitals or patients, were involved in a “special session” of the HFPP last October that led to the drafting of the white paper.
“It’s concerning that CMS appears to have developed a policy proposal regarding opioid prescribing solely on the basis of advice from a group dominated by the insurance industry, without asking for input from affected healthcare professional groups,” said Bob Twillman, PhD, Executive Director of the Academy of Integrative Pain Management, an organization of physicians who specialize in pain care.
“We have to be mindful of the vested interests of insurance companies in this issue. Some advocates have argued that pharmaceutical manufacturers have wielded outsized influence in previous policy decisions, but there has been precious little focus on the influence of payers, which seems obvious in this case.”
CMS contracts with dozens of private insurance companies to provide health coverage to about 54 million Americans through Medicare and nearly 70 million in state-run Medicaid programs.
“Who exactly are the individuals who put this information together for CMS… and what is their true aim?” asks Ingrid Hollis, the mother of a chronic pain patient. “It looks to me like collusion between insurance companies and federal agencies to cut costs.
“Senior citizens and those disabled with progressive painful diseases or injuries deserve better treatment than this. To single this community out for draconian policies based on what looks like purely profit motives in the name of ‘harm reduction’ is inhumane. Who is truly being harmed here?”
“When they describe insurance companies involved in their efforts as ‘Champions,’ it calls to mind comic book and movie heroes like Superman. Superman was noble, his motives pure. I don't think of profit-conscious insurers as being noble or pure in motive,” said Anne Fuqua, a disabled nurse, pain patient and patient advocate.
“Involving insurance companies in setting policies that directly or indirectly impact prescribing and/or reimbursement presents a conflict of interest.”
Stewards, Stockers and Demanders
Under the proposed CMS policy, information about doctors and patients who’ve been red flagged by pharmacists for suspicious prescribing would be shared through a CMS database with all insurers. The companies would then be empowered to “investigate provider and beneficiary behaviors that may be indicative of fraud or abuse.” Violators could be dropped from insurance networks or lose their coverage.
The HFPP white paper goes further, recommending that insurers develop profiles of each patient and classify them in one of three groups based on their behavior:
- “Stewards” (patients who follow guidelines)
- “Stockers” (patients who stockpile unused medications)
- “Demanders” (patients who ask for medication)
“Segmenting patients by intentions/behaviors with regards to opioid prescriptions could help payers better target messages and disseminate tailored communications that are most salient to the recipient,” the white paper states.
“For example, stewards may be those who are more likely to adhere to the CDC guideline and seek non-pharmacologic or non-opioid pharmacologic therapies for chronic pain and stockers may be those who are likely to ask for an opioid prescription/have received an opioid prescription for chronic pain in the past.”
A data analysis of patients and doctors, according to the white paper, could also be used by insurers to develop computer models to identify “problematic actors and schemes” and “deny payments for prescriptions that do not conform to general prescribing practices.”
“The HFPP strongly encourages collaborative efforts to develop and widely disseminate effective strategies to identify: patients at risk of opioid misuse or OUD, providers whose opioid prescribing patterns fail to comply with quality indicators (such as the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain), and methods that are particularly effective at preventing or treating OUD,” the white paper states.
But critics say the profiling of patients and doctors, as well as the sharing of data from prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), amounts to an invasion of privacy.
“PDMP data contains some of the most sensitive health information that is produced. When PDMPs were introduced, confidentiality protections were stressed and prescribers and pharmacists could review the information,” says Anne Fuqua.
“Now, CMS is discussing their plan to provide open access to insurers participating in their database. They flip between arguments that this will help insurers make sure people get needed treatments for addiction and fraud detection. It's clear that detection of fraud and conserving on drug costs is the primary focus.”
Non-Opioid Treatments Encouraged
Like the CDC guidelines, the white paper discourages the use of opioid pain medication, and recommends that over-the-counter pain relievers such as aspirin, acetaminophen and ibuprofen be used as an alternatives, as well as “non-pharmacological” treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy and chiropractic care. Addiction treatment drugs such as buprenorphine and methadone are strongly recommended for anyone showing signs of opioid use disorder.
“Clinicians should consider opioid therapy only if expected benefits for both pain and function are anticipated to outweigh risks to the patient. If opioids are used, they should be combined with non-pharmacologic therapy and non-opioid pharmacologic therapy,” the paper states.
Critics say the recommendations – and threats of sanctions against those who don’t follow them -- could interfere with the doctor-patient relationship.
"Proposals, like CMS' Opioid Misuse Strategy, aimed at combatting the prescription drug abuse crisis, while important, must be careful to not leave patients with a legitimate medical need without access to the treatments they and their doctors have determined are the best course of care,” the Alliance for Patient Access, a national network of physicians, said in a statement to PNN.
“Patient access can be impeded when physicians and patients feel threatened that they are being watched, may be reported, or their personal information shared by pharmacists and insurers. When that happens patients suffer and the physician-patient relationship, one based on trust, is strained.”
“It should not be a surprise that insurance companies have been aggressively opposing the use of branded opioids. Their fiduciary responsibility is to their shareholders, not to patients,” said Lynn Webster, MD, past president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. “Decisions by insurance companies are causing many patients to suffer. This is not right.”
“Patients and doctors don’t want insurance companies and other parties determining what is best for them. Doctors have a medical degree, the experience, the knowledge and treatment plans are determined by the medical condition they are treating,” says Ingrid Hollis.
“They act in the best interest of the patient, and have pledged the Hippocratic Oath of ‘Do no harm.’ Can the same be said of the bean counters in the insurance industry? Insurance is interested in cost cutting and maximizing profits. Doctors are trying to save lives.”
CMS has not said when it plans to implement its Opioid Misuse Strategy or if public hearings would ever be held on them. The agency has only said that in coming weeks it would release “statements reflecting the agency’s Medicare and Medicaid goals.”
The HFPP white paper was released publicly for the first time Tuesday on the CMS website, without any explanation of its broader meaning or impact on Medicare and Medicaid policies.
An HFPP infographic urging people "to fight healthcare fraud, waste and abuse" was also released on the government-run website, without any indication that it was largely developed by the insurance industry.
