The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation has dropped the Oxycontin painkiller and cited a safer alternative to help fight the opioid crisis.
Starting in July, Oxycontin will no longer be prescribed for injured workers in the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation system, according to a release.
The BWC’s Board of Directors voted Friday to drop the drug from the BWC formulary and replace it with Xtampza ER.
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BWC Chief Medical Officer Terry Welsh calls this drug “an equally effective but harder-to-abuse drug”.
“Xtampza is a sustained-release form of oxycodone, like Oxycontin, but it utilizes a unique abuse-deterrent technology that makes it difficult to manipulate crush, snort or inject for aberrant use,” he said. “Thanks to technology, this just seems like the next responsible step to protect our injured workers from potential addiction and overdoes death to dangerous drugs.”
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Welsh said the agency will phase out the use of Oxycontin and generic oxycodone sustained-release tablets over time.
"When an on-the-job injury causes someone serious discomfort, we want that worker to get the needed pain relief, but we also want to ensure that work injuries don't lead to addiction," said Governor Mike DeWine. "Changing BWC's formulary and replacing Oxycontin with a comparable painkiller that is less susceptible to abuse is the responsible thing to do. I commend BWC for taking this step to prevent addiction among injured workers."
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The board’s vote follows other critical changes since 2011 by the agency to mitigate the opioid epidemic impact on Ohio’s workforce, the release stated. This includes the creation of a pharmacy and therapeutics committee, the development of BWC’s first-ever formulary, and the 2016 Opioid Rule that holds prescribers accountable if they don’t follow best practices.
Between 2011 and 2018, the number of opioid doses prescribed in the BWC system fell 66 percent due to these changes.
