LANSING, Mich. (Legal Newsline) — Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced Oct. 20 he has joined a bipartisan group of attorneys general in drafting a letter to health care companies with pharmacy benefit management (PBM) programs, urging them to take steps to curb prescription opioid abuse.
“Opioid addiction can take root as a result of an injury and a legitimate prescription for an opioid pain reliever designed to make the patient feel better,” Schuette said. “Opioid addiction doesn’t see race, gender, socioeconomic status, it just sees another victim. We can’t fight this ever-growing threat with law enforcement efforts alone; we need partnerships across industries to make a dent in the problem.”
The health care companies include Argus Health Systems Inc., Benecard Servies LLC, Envision Pharmaceutical Services LLC, Envolve Health, Express Scripts Inc., Humana, Inc., Magellan Rx Management, MedImpact Healthcare Systems Inc., Navitus Health Solutions LLC, OptumRX Inc., PerformRx, Prime Therapeutics Inc., ProCare Rx, RxAdvance and WellDyneRx.
"The opioid epidemic is the most pressing public health crisis our country faces," the attorneys general wrote in the letter. "It affects every state and has a devastating impact on communities – tearing apart families and stretching the budgets of local law enforcement and first responders as they do the difficult work on the front lines. For our part, attorneys general are pooling resources and coordinating across party lines to address the crisis."
Joining Schuette in the letter were the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.