Doctors acknowledge that many patients are the victims of inappropriate opioid prescriptions in the past, but they argue that simply yanking away the drugs at this point would be unproductive. (Image: Shutterstock)
While there appears to be a growing consensus among drug treatment experts and medical professionals that opioids have been far too liberally prescribed by doctors in recent years, some doctors are pushing back at efforts to prevent them from giving patients powerful painkillers.
Next week, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is expected to implement a new rule on reimbursements for pain medication. Medicare will no longer cover long-term opioid prescriptions above a certain dosage. The guideline states that no prescription should deliver a dose equivalent to 90 milligrams of morphine.
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