Doctor Disability: Financial Pain Meds a Staple of Disability Care
Pain medications are becoming more of an addiction than a cure for doctors. Twice as many people are addicted to habit forming medication, like pain killers, than cocaine. While pain pills add cost and delays to job injuries, it has also correlated with an increase in absenteeism. This is why doctor disability insurance is so important.
The numbers are painful:
- Workers receiving high doses of opioid painkillers to treat disabling injuries remain off of work three times longer than those with similar injuries who were treated with lower dosages, according to a 2008 California Workers Compensation Institute study.
- When a strong narcotic painkiller, such as oxycodone, is used at all, the cost of medical care and disability is nine times higher for workplace injuries, says a 2010 study by Accident Fund Holdings.
- Medical expenses and lost wages for those with a disabling injury who are prescribed an opioid are three times higher than such costs for those prescribed a short-acting painkiller, according to Accident Fund.
These findings can be extrapolated to other physicians disability insurance situations involving pain, since it’s not just workers compensation doctors who prescribe opioid pain medications.
Lost-Wage Syndrome
While the price of the medications may be covered by health insurance, if your injury results from a non-work event, you may experience significant lost wages that health insurance won’t touch. You would need to look to a doctors disability insurance policy for that.
You might also want to consider some other facts regarding opioids and wage loss:
Nursing—Opiate painkiller addition is a prevalent problem among nurses who experience pain from their physically demanding jobs.
Un-coping—The body’s own painkilling ability is compromised by opioids, and nerve cells in the brain degenerate. After long-term use and discontinuation of opioids, normal aches and pains cannot be tolerated, leading to absenteeism or more prescriptions.
Addiction—Opioids target the same brain receptors as heroin. A 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that twice as many people are addicted to pain meds than to cocaine, and the CDC found that opioid dependence is more common than abuse of any other prescription drug.
Lethargy—In some patients, opioids cause lethargy, which interferes with physical therapy, thereby decreasing their ability to get back to work in their own job.
The best method of preventing addiction and avoiding extended disability time due to the effects of prescription painkillers is to speak frankly with your doctor upfront. Discuss your desire to treat pain effectively without habit-forming medications. While short-term disability or long-term disability insurance is effective at protecting your income flow, nothing is like prevention to protect you from the suffering that accompanies addiction.
For information or a price quote on physicians disability insurance, call at 866-899-7318.
Source:
Pain Pills Add Cost and Delays to Job Injuries
Painkillers fuel growth in drug addiction
Nurses with Opiate Painkiller Addiction
Pain Killer Addiction Treatment