EDITORIAL: OXYCONTIN

State Officials Must Remember This Is Also Effective Pain Medicine

The finances of the health insurance program for state employees is a
continuing source of consternation for taxpayers. The Public Employees
Insurance Agency will cost more than $300 million this year, so naturally
any saving should be welcomed.

But maybe not.

State officials are concerned about the rising use of OxyContin, a powerful
painkiller that now ranks among the top five drugs prescribed under the
Medicaid and Workers' Compensation programs.

Reports by police officials of widespread abuse of OxyContin in Southern
West Virginia this winter awakened many people to the fact that prescribed
drugs are a major drug problem.

Unfortunately, those reports also demonized an effective painkiller.
Already, the attorney general has seized upon the bad publicity and filed a
lawsuit against the manufacturer.

The manufacturer of the drug has been criticized for too-aggressive
marketing that may have contributed to its misuse. But it should be
remembered that for people who suffer intractable pain, OxyContin is a godsend.

There's a reason why physicians have made it one of the top five drugs, and
that reason isn't slick advertising and glib-talking company
representatives. Obviously, this is good medicine.

But someone has to pay for this medicine. Officials at the insurance agency
for state employees are concerned. The agency's spending on this one drug
rose 38 percent last year.

However, that's 38 percent of a very small number. The increase in
OxyContin prescriptions cost the state $223,000 -- a very small fraction of
1 percent of the agency's $300 million-plus budget.

Sen. Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, chairman of the Senate's Committee on Health
and Human Resources, wisely declined to brand OxyContin as the root of all
evil.

"You would hate to deny anybody use of a drug that is certainly beneficial
to their health, and in killing pain, it's certainly one that does,"
Prezioso told the Daily Mail's Sam Tranum.

The concern over OxyContin costs is understandable, but surely there are
other areas of the Public Employees Insurance Agency that deserve as much
scrutiny.