The attorney’s at Murphy Law Firm know that thousands of injured workers are prescribed opioid medications to treat chronic pain conditions which are otherwise unbearable. Suicide due to chronic pain is not uncommon. For many workers, these medications safely and effectively improve quality of life and injured people’s ability to perform physical activities. Preventing injured individuals from receiving properly prescribed medications has a high risk of negatively impacting their ability to function and may also lead to unintended addiction issues, and/or potentially to the use of illegal drugs. Medications can also provide an effective temporary solution to allow workers to resume activities, foster healing, and regain function. Murphy Law Firm, like WILG, believes all laws, rules, and regulations restricting the use of opioid pain medications must do so reasonably and with regard for the injured individuals’ best chances of recover.
Murphy Law Firm, like the Workers’ Injury Law and Advocacy Group (“WILG”), believes medication restrictions should:
1. Include reasonable alternatives aimed at reducing or relieving pain and improving functioning, with an emphasis on these alternatives having equal or greater efficacy.
2. Emphasize quality of care rather than an arbitrary reduction in the number or type of prescriptions.
3. Enhance, maintain and avoid intrusions into the physician-patient relationship.
4. Provide physicians and their patients speedy due process and a pathway to apply for a variance or exception from policies based on patients’ specific needs.
5. Offer evaluation and treatment assisting in the reduction, tapering or cessation of opioid usage when appropriate.
6. Injured workers already using properly prescribed and physician-managed opioid medications should be excluded from laws, regulations or rules impacting their ability to continue their current pain management plan.
7. Any programs reducing opioid usage by injured workers must include individualized opioid reduction plans controlled by the injured worker and their medical provider alone.
Murphy Law Firm believes that any law which infringes on an injured persons’ freedom, privacy and flexibility in their medical treatment must be reasonable and comply with the above requirements. Without safeguards against insurer intereference in your medical treatment, all medical benefits, including medications, can be stripped away. Without the proper assistance, many injured citizens are denied the right to fair medical treatment, including prescription medication.
Contact Us
If an insurer denied your medication needs and you have questions about your legal rights, contact us at your earliest convenience. The experienced legal team at Murphy Law Firm is happy to listen to the details of your case and recommend your best course of legal action.