Health Plans Launch New STOP Initiative to Help Battle Opioid Crisis in America

Insurance Weekly News

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Health plans nationwide are working closely with state and federal leaders, as well as with physicians and other providers on multiple strategies to address the opioid crisis. To build on these efforts, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) has launched its Safe, Transparent Opioid Prescribing (STOP) Initiative. The STOP Initiative is designed to support widespread adoption of clinical guidelines for pain care and opioid prescribing.

As its first action under the STOP Initiative, AHIP has launched the STOP Measure, a robust, evidence-based methodology health plans can use to measure how provider practices compare to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. This measurement helps health plans and providers collaborate to improve adherence with the CDC guidelines, significantly improving patient safety and reducing the risk of opioid misuse.

Health plans have consistently supported the CDC's opioid guidelines to promote evidence-based pain care and reduce unnecessary opioid prescribing. The STOP Measure takes these efforts much further by establishing an industry-wide approach to measuring performance against the CDC guidelines, tracking and reducing the number of opioid prescriptions.

"Too many Americans are suffering from this epidemic, and too many families have lost loved ones because of it." said Dr. Richard Bankowitz, Chief Medical Officer of AHIP. "That's why health plans are doing everything in their power to attack this issue head on. The STOP Initiative is another way our health plans are coming together to improve patient care and reduce the risk of opioid abuse."

Keywords for this news article include: America’s Health Insurance Plans AHIP, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).