Physician organizations receiving additional information to help providers address opioid epidemic

As part of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s continuing efforts to address the opioid epidemic, Value Partnerships, in partnership with Pharmacy Services, is accelerating efforts on multiple fronts to further reduce fraud and the abuse of controlled substances.

Our current Fraud, Waste and Abuse Program already identifies the following:

• Health care providers who are writing an opioid prescription for a patient who may be “doctor shopping,” the practice of visiting multiple physicians to obtain multiple prescriptions.

• Patients who have been prescribed part or all a dangerous drug combination known as the “triple threat” — concurrent use of opioids, benzodiazepines and muscle relaxants. Triple threat combinations are often linked to recreational patient use and frequently lead to overdose and even death.

Blue Cross has a longstanding practice of contacting prescribing physicians when one of these situations is occurring in case they are unaware of it. Since April 2016, Blue Cross Pharmacy Services has seen a 33 percent drop in members identified in our doctor shopper analysis and a 54 percent drop in members receiving the dangerous triple threat drug combination.

In December, we began bringing our Physician Group Incentive Program participating physician organizations into the loop so that they, too, receive monthly reports of their member physicians who could unknowingly be involved in one of these potentially dangerous scenarios.

This process change provides us with an additional venue for educating providers about the importance of using the Michigan Automated Prescription System, or MAPS. The tool, provided by the State of Michigan, helps prescribers identify patients who may be improperly seeking Schedule 2 to 5 drugs. It’s used to identify and prevent drug abuse and diversion at the prescriber, pharmacy and patient level.

For more information, go to michigan.gov/mimapsinfo** or reach out to your physician organization.

New flyer on opioid epidemic
To learn more about what Blue Cross and Blue Care Network are doing to battle the opioid epidemic, see the flyer we recently developed. It provides updated statistics about the opioid epidemic, outlines our comprehensive strategy and shows results from our various initiatives.

** Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan doesn’t own or control this website.