Payers and providers play an important role in addressing the opioid crisis in our communities. This page highlights the most recently added resources specifically targeting healthcare providers, healthcare system employees, and individuals who manage private and public insurance plans. These resources, identified with blue tiles, include patient and provider education materials, clinical practice guidelines and practice protocols, and research and reports about insurance coverage and benefit design around addiction treatment and pain management.
If you’d like to submit materials for inclusion consideration or suggest a future featured topic, please visit CLOUD’s call for submissions page.
The Veterans Health Administration created this clinician’s guide to reevaluating the use of benzodiazepines in treating depression, anxiety and insomnia in Veterans. The guide includes information about the significant risks of benzodiazepines including patients developing physical dependence on the medications and their association with patient accidents and fatalities and recommends that benzodiazepines should
This guide to managing acute pain was created by the Veterans Administration to help their clinicians reduce opioid prescriptions while also treating their patient’s pain. The guide presents a step-wise approach to pain management: step 1 prioritzes non-pharmacological treatments, step 2 consists of non-pharmacological approaches and non-opioid pharmacotherapy second, and step 3 adds short term use of short-acting
A 2017 policy brief from the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice, this report describes why strategies to address the opioid crisis will only be successful if we understand the connection between trauma and the roots of addiction. The brief also provides examples of effective prevention and treatment programs. Funding Source: Unknown
This 2016 toolkit from Partnership Health Plan of California provides guidance for providers seeking to engage their patients in a step-wise, physician directed tapering of their opioid dose. The toolkit has 4 sections: how to identify candidates for tapering, how to collaboratively set a tapering plan with the patient, how to manage the tapering process and complications, and advice on planning for special situations
This January 2017 memorandum from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy alerts federal agency staff to recommended changes in language use related to substance use and substance use disorders. The recommended changes in language use are intended to reduce stigma and support treatment for substance use disorders.
Report of a study comparing opioid prescribing rates in 2016 by dentists in the United States and England. The authors found that the proportion of prescriptions written by US dentists was 37 times greater than the proportion written by English dentists. Funding Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Institutes of Health
The Washington Department of Health developed these patient education guides in conjunction with the implementation of new opioid prescribing guidelines in the state. This patient guide discusses prescription opioids for surgical pain. Funding Source: Washington Department of Health
The Washington Department of Health developed these patient education guides in conjunction with the implementation of new opioid prescribing guidelines in the state. This patient guide discusses prescription opioids for sub acute pain lasting 6 to 12 weeks. Funding Source: Washington Department of Health
The Washington Department of Health developed these patient education guides in conjunction with the implementation of new opioid prescribing guidelines in the state. This patient guide discusses prescription opioids for chronic, long term pain. Funding Source: Washington State Department of Health
The Washington Department of Health developed these patient education guides in conjunction with the implementation of new opioid prescribing guidelines in the state. This patient guide discusses prescription opioids for acute pain.