Recently in pain management Category

According to the American Diabetes Association, approximately 25.8 million children and adults in the United States -- 8.3% of the population -- have diabetes. 1.9 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in people aged 20 years and older in 2010.

Managing diabetes at any age can be both time consuming and tedious. However, with the technological advances of this day and age, instruments are being developed to help improve and simplify that process.

Cellnovo mobile diabetes management tools provide the freedom from the arduous task of managing this disease. Through a symphony of connected devices, the goal is to reduce the burden while providing more insight to people with diabetes, their healthcare team and their family. This mobile diabetes management system is drawing comparisons to Apple Inc.'s blockbuster iPhone and iPod platforms.

Creators of this technology believe this will revolutionize the lives of insulin dependent individuals. "If people understand Cellnovo as a device that sends data to a website, they are missing the point," CEO Bill Mckeon told the medical device publication Invivo last year. "If you had asked Steve Jobs at Apple about his new MP3 player called the iPod, and how it compares to other MP3 players, he might have said, 'I am not making an MP3 player. I'm bringing entertainment into your life in a number of ways.'"

Read more about Cellnova's goals in the mobile approach to diabetes care in this article.

This technology will hopefully bring some additional exposure to successfully managing this disease in an effort to improve the lifestyles of injured workers' dealing with diabetes alongside their injury.

The following report sheds light on a disturbing trend in disability fraud: Watch the CBS report: Fighting federal disability fraud. Apparently, quite a few federal workers have been double dipping -- to the tune of $25 billion.

More on the Berkley bionic legs. As seen on the Today Show earlier this week, high school basketball teammates are reunited -- one injured in a tragic shooting accident, the other now a world-class orthopedic surgeon. See the latest on how Berkley's bionic legs will be tested on one giant of a man and how the two hope to once again meet on the basketball courts to settle some old scores. Watch Robot legs may reunite teammates on basketball court.

USA Today reported on a sweep across South Florida targeting what the local police and the DEA call "pill mills." According to the report, on Wednesday, authorities arrested 22 people including four doctors, and seized dozens of expensive cars. The sweep is part of a nationwide crackdown on illegal pain management clinics that have sprung up over the past few years. The report names Florida the "oxycodone epicenter" citing that Florida medical practitioners purchased more oxycodone pills in the first six months of 2010 than all other states combined -- 41.3 million oxycodone pills. Florida leads the nation in prescription drug misuse. Read Florida raids target sellers of pain pills.

The issue of compounded drugs has come up again. This time in California, where a coalition is proposing legislation for restrictions on pricing to such drugs by adding medically necessary compounded drugs to the state's fee schedule. The coalition points to a sharp rise in bills submitted to the State Compensation Insurance Fund. Apparently last year, the billings for compounded drugs reached $28 million, or 24% of SCIF's total billings for prescriptions. That's a pretty big number. Read the story as it appeared in the LA Times titled Unusual coalition pushes for restrictions on compounded drugs. Thank you Joe Paduda for the tip on the article.

We have posted on the topic of compounded drugs before. See our post titled Are You Keeping an Eye on Claims Involving Chronic Pain?

How does the holiday season impact risk and workers' compensation? While most of us are enjoying the holidays and doing our best to relax, it sounds like the risk managers at UPS are busy crunching numbers. Or, if they aren't, perhaps they should be. Read this interesting article by Jon Coppelman at Workers' Comp Insider called UPS at Risk: 37,500 Temps!

Want a recap of what happened in workers' comp in 2010? Read Joe Paduda's picks for the top work comp stories of 2010.

And finally some food for thought as we wind down the year: yet another reason to stop eating fast food is offered up in an article authored by Dr. Joseph Mercola over at The Huffington Post. Read What is in Fast Food? A Newly Discovered Reason to Avoid Fast Food.

In an excellent article called Chronic Pain In-Depth Series written by Peter Rousmaniere, workers' comp expert and columnist for Risk and Insurance, Peter points out that while chronic pain claims account for only 5% of lost-time claims, the costs of those claims equal 30% of all lost-time payments in the first year alone. Pain management is a huge issue in America, impacting all aspects of our healthcare system. Many workers' comp experts have researched and written extensively on the issue, including:

Read Chronic pain management in workers' comp plus an archived article titled Workers' Comp Drugs: Paying Too Much...for the Wrong Medicines by Workerscompinsider.com

Joe Paduda writes on pharmacy issues frequently. His blog post Washington's smart policy on opioids highlights how one state decided to manage the issue of chronic pain management.

We have also addressed issues involving pain management in earlier posts including Oxycontin Reformulation and Compounding Fraud.

If you manage workers' compensation claims, partner with a company like Total Medical Solutions who can provide you with the clinical expertise and oversight needed to ensure your claims are on the right track. A good workers' compensation complex care partner will help you develop a plan for your chronic pain claims and can help you identify claims that should be montiored closely so that they don't spiral out of control.

In an effort to discourage misuse and abuse of the drug OxyContin, the FDA has approved a new formulation of the medication. The drug is prescribed for the management of moderate to severe pain when a continuous analgesic is needed for an extended period of time. Read the FDA's news release FDA Approves New Formulation for OxyContin.

In its new form, the drug is harder to crush, cut, chew, ground, or dissolve in liquid. While it is not expected to be the "end all" for OxyContin addiction and abuse, experts agree that it is a step in the right direction. The new formulation is really aimed at cutting down on the number of accidental overdoses related to the drug that occur each year. According to the FDA, about half a million people people used OxyContin for the first time for non-medical reasons in 2008, citing statistics from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Other recent news on OxyContin...

Los Angeles Times Article - OxyContin Gets a Safety Makeover 

New York Times Article - Harder-To-Break OxyContin Pill Wins Approval

NPR - Prescription Drug Overdoses Send More People to Hospitals