New Opioids Reduce Pain – and Addiction Risk

A new generation of opioid drugs are on the horizon, possibly offering the much maligned class of drugs a second chance to make a good impression. After years of opioids like oxycodone and fentanyl driving up drug addiction rates nationwide, a second subset of once odious opioids is being introduced, touting all the painkilling power of its conventional counterpart – less the dangerous and deadly side effects.

A Different Approach

While pharmaceutical companies continue to crank out new prescription formulations geared toward treating the side effects of opioid drug use and addiction rather than eliminating the painkillers, researchers are seeking a new path to both help patients – and repair the reputation of opioids. To combat ever-rising opioid addiction rates and overdose deaths, researchers are working with three (new) compounds:

• Oliceridine 
  Created by Trevena, this drug has been given preferential regulatory treatment by the FDA.
• Mitragynine Pseudoindoxyl
  Derived from leaves of the Southeast Asian kratom plant, this compound has demonstrated a decreased addiction risk in mice.
• Compound PZM21
  Early testing has produced results that, according to researchers, are unlike those seen from other potential painkiller compounds.

Mitigating Risks

Working like morphine to bind to proteins in the brain, spinal cord, and other organs, this new family of opioid drugs activates a different signaling pathway than their predecessors, using a route through which information flows from one molecule to another. These essential differences are hoped to decrease the risk of addiction, as well as the leading cause of overdose death – respiratory depression – the elimination of which has been deemed an essential goal.

Ensuring Optimal Outcomes

To combat the high economic and human/personal costs of opioid abuse, dependence, and overdose, as well as to ensure a post-injury recovery process that yields maximum results and quality of life, ANS Solutions has developed Pharmacotherapy Review. This unique and industry-leading approach far surpasses run-of-the-mill drug utilization programs, providing comprehensive care and an attention to detail that protects injured workers and workers’ compensation payers alike against the concurrent risks and costs of unnecessary treatment regimens, including the over-prescription of opioids, through…

• Exceptionally credentialed Legal Nurse experts, Doctors of Pharmacy, and staff.
• Face-to-face collaboration.
• Consolidation/coordination of drug therapies between all prescribers.
• Identification of excessive dosages.
• Weaning programs for over-prescribed narcotics.
• Consideration of evidence-backed treatment alternatives.

Set off on a new path to injury and disability treatment. Uncover the benefits of Pharmacotherapy Review from http://www.ans-solutions.com today.

Original content posted on http://ans-solutions.com/new-opioids-reduce-pain-and-addiction-risk/

Medical Cost Containment Does Not Mean Compromised Care

The existing way that the workers’ compensation industry handles large loss claims has been contributing to diminished quality in care for injured workers, increased costs associated with treatments, and poorly coordinated care. Care delivery within workers’ compensation programs is arguably even more inefficient than in general healthcare but it does NOT have to be this way. Payers can have the best of both worlds with medical cost containment strategies that provide quantifiable outcomes that positively impact the patient’s health while also driving down associated treatment costs.

How does Medical Cost Containment Improve the Quality of Care for Injured Workers?

Interventions with prescribers can be instrumental in improving the quality of life and treatment for patients. ANS PharmaIntervention is designed to help treating physicians detect and correct underlying problems, promote functional improvement and reduce narcotic usage. Our legal nurse experts conduct comprehensive reviews of a patient’s medical history often uncovering risk factors and other considerations that can be overlooked by treating physicians. They are then able to collaborate with treating physicians to improve the current treatment plan based on actionable, evidence based recommendations. The benefits to the injured worker include but are not limited to:

• Reduced risk for prescription opioid painkiller addiction.
• A modified treatment program based on recovery.
• A modified treatment program based on the availability of alternative treatments and therapies that may be more effective, and have fewer side effects.

All of which contributes to measurable improvements in quality of care and life for the injured worker- even increasing the likelihood of returning to work sooner.

How Does Medical Cost Containment Positively Impact Your Bottom Line?

Ensuring injured workers receive the right care at the right time from treating physicians, minimizes the financial impact of catastrophic injuries. The goal of ANS PharmIntervention is to improve quality of care by applying expert clinical knowledge and experience to recommend, where appropriate, alternative treatments and therapies. The financial benefits of the ANS PharmIntervention strategy stem from its ability to aid treating physicians in:

• Improving opioid painkiller practices.
• Avoiding unnecessary or inappropriate pharmaceutical and medical treatments.
• Avoiding duplicate therapies in the event of multiple treating physicians.

When done correctly, medical cost containment ensures that patients receive the highest quality of care balanced with the necessary cost controls.

Care without Compromise

ANS Legal Nurse Consultants provide comprehensive reviews of large loss claims while delivering optimized financial results and quality of care for injured workers. To learn more about our medical cost containment strategies visit our website at www.ans-solutions.com.
This content was originally published at: http://ans-solutions.com/medical-cost-containment-does-not-mean-compromised-care/#sthash.iSdyqFjt.dpuf

The Medical Legal Nurse Consultant – A Jack of All Trades

Medical legal claims typically involve complicated, long-term medical issues and represent an enormous financial burden for Payers. In order to mitigate this financial exposure it is crucial for Payers to accurately assess the true value of alleged damages. But this is no small task and it often requires extensive investigation and expert interpretation. Let’s be honest, mitigating financial exposure can only effectively be done by a highly credentialed few, those with a hybrid skillset of healthcare expertise, specialized legal training, and first-hand experience in complex liability matters such as GL, toxic exposure, personal injury, and malpractice. 

With qualifications in both medical and legal fields the Legal Nurse Consultant is perfectly poised to aid insurance companies who want to optimize their results and settle large claims once and for all. By definition, a Legal Nurse Consultant is an individual with healthcare expertise who has taken additional specialized legal training so that they can consult as an expert on medical cases, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Medical Legal Nurse Consultant Litigation Support

In litigation support, the data and reporting generated by legal nurse consultants can provide an extraordinarily powerful legal instrument in the negotiation of a claim. At ANS, our strategy for mitigating and defending medical legal claims involves a host of strategic activities including:

• The critical analysis and review of initial complaints, supporting medical & legal documentation and pricing to allow for an accurate assessment of true damages.   
• Review of medical causation and exposure to effectively gauge merits of alleged injuries while identifying any missing medical information that may prove valuable to the claim.
• Generating an expert assessment and opinion based on a detail of record and all documented encounters with medical systems. 
• Uncovering causation, mitigating factors, unreasonable medical charges, inappropriate/red flag patterns of care, and unnecessary and unrelated care issues are exposed
• Providing a counter analysis in the event that a plaintiff future cost of care report is submitted.

Medical Class Action & the Medical Legal Nurse Consultant

Navigating a medical claim involved in a class action is difficult to say the least. Class actions are very large in scope requiring the dissection and digestion of thousands of pages of legal and medical documentation. Fortunately, medical class actions are another area of support fielded by ANS’s legal nurse consultants.  We have extensive experience in handling class action and large tort cases. If you have a medical legal claim involved in a medical class action case, our medical legal nurse consultants can assist by providing:

• Initial screening for merit and damages.
• Analysis of massive amounts of data quickly and accurately creating a snapshot of the case.
• Recommendation for appropriate next steps based on medical review.

At ANS, our team of nurse experts, are highly credentialed and wield an average of 25 years in specialized nursing experience. In addition, their scope of jurisdictional expertise yields unparalleled results. To find out more about ANS Solutions’ superior medical legal nurse consulting services visit us at http://www.ans-solutions.com.

This content was originally posted on http://www.ans-solutions.com.

The Medical Legal Nurse Consultant – A Jack of All Trades

Medical legal claims typically involve complicated, long-term medical issues and represent an enormous financial burden for Payers. In order to mitigate this financial exposure it is crucial for Payers to accurately assess the true value of alleged damages. But this is no small task and it often requires extensive investigation and expert interpretation. Let’s be honest, mitigating financial exposure can only effectively be done by a highly credentialed few, those with a hybrid skillset of healthcare expertise, specialized legal training, and first-hand experience in complex liability matters such as GL, toxic exposure, personal injury, and malpractice. 

With qualifications in both medical and legal fields the Legal Nurse Consultant is perfectly poised to aid insurance companies who want to optimize their results and settle large claims once and for all. By definition, a Legal Nurse Consultant is an individual with healthcare expertise who has taken additional specialized legal training so that they can consult as an expert on medical cases, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Medical Legal Nurse Consultant Litigation Support

In litigation support, the data and reporting generated by legal nurse consultants can provide an extraordinarily powerful legal instrument in the negotiation of a claim. At ANS, our strategy for mitigating and defending medical legal claims involves a host of strategic activities including:

·         The critical analysis and review of initial complaints, supporting medical & legal documentation and pricing to allow for an accurate assessment of true damages.   

·         Review of medical causation and exposure to effectively gauge merits of alleged injuries while identifying any missing medical information that may prove valuable to the claim.

·         Generating an expert assessment and opinion based on a detail of record and all documented encounters with medical systems. 

·         Uncovering causation, mitigating factors, unreasonable medical charges, inappropriate/red flag patterns of care, and unnecessary and unrelated care issues are exposed

·         Providing a counter analysis in the event that a plaintiff future cost of care report is submitted.

Medical Class Action & the Medical Legal Nurse Consultant

Navigating a medical claim involved in a class action is difficult to say the least. Class actions are very large in scope requiring the dissection and digestion of thousands of pages of legal and medical documentation. Fortunately, medical class actions are another area of support fielded by ANS’s legal nurse consultants.  We have extensive experience in handling class action and large tort cases. If you have a medical legal claim involved in a medical class action case, our medical legal nurse consultants can assist by providing:

• Initial screening for merit and damages.
• Analysis of massive amounts of data quickly and accurately creating a snapshot of the case.
• Recommendation for appropriate next steps based on medical review.

At ANS, our team of nurse experts, are highly credentialed and wield an average of 25 years in specialized nursing experience. In addition, their scope of jurisdictional expertise yields unparalleled results. To find out more about ANS Solutions’ superior medical legal nurse consulting services visit us at http://www.ans-solutions.com.

This content was originally posted on http://www.ans-solutions.com.

What is a Medical Cost Projection?

Medical Cost Projection (MCP) is a medical cost containment analysis often used to set reserves in complex cases where multiple factors drive exposure, and complex medical and legal information needs to be considered. Most people look at it as “what this case is worth,” but that’s not really accurate.  MCP is a comprehensive and expert analysis which generates reliable, evidence-based recommendations to positively manage the medical portion of a claim.

Key Attributes of a Medical Cost Projection

To fully understand what a Medical Cost Projection (MCP) is, we need to boil a MCP down to its most basic form.  Below are the five key attributes that define Medical Cost Projection: 

1. It’s an educated speculation made by highly credentialed medical experts. Our expert Legal RNs harness a wealth of knowledge giving ANS the advantage of being able to make specific detailed recommendations that that achieve improved quality of life and identify financial savings for payers.   
2.  MCPs should include state specific jurisdictional expertise, married to intimate medical knowledge, and specific experience with catastrophic injuries. At ANS, the complexities of each case are matched to the relevant expert knowledge and experience of a highly credentialed RN from our national network.  
3. The cost figures in MCPs are based on the use of today’s dollars.   The cost remains static unless it is a known fact that something will increase in cost at a given point in the future. ANS evaluates potential areas of exposure and savings for the most comprehensive medical action plan possible. Anyone can take what someone is currently paying, multiply it by their life expectancy, and get a number. But a truly useful MCP is far more detailed than that. 
4. At ANS, it involves breaking down a case to each specific service and requirement.  This includes an injured worker’s past complications, current needs, co-morbidities, etc.  We also take into account future needs, based on a reasonable degree of certainty, using costs specific to each jurisdiction.  
5. MCPs projects costs within a specific period of time. Everyone has a life expectancy and every insurance company has their own way of calculating said life expectancy, be it rated ages, discounts, etc.  Our reports are fully customizable to fit any carrier’s policies in this area.  We can base our reports on any time frame requested.
 

ANS Medical Cost Projection Services

When it comes to complex claims, an accurate evaluation to identify the value of a claim can only be reached with the kind of comprehensive research and analysis that comes from ANS Solutions’ Medical Cost Projection services. The recommendations from our highly credentialed nurse experts, along with their local jurisdictional prowess, create an analysis that allows Payers to accurately set reserves for the life of the claim.

If you would like to learn more about our Medical Cost Projection programs and other medical cost containment services contact ANS Solutions today.