The opioid crisis is a national emergency. But it’s the personal toll – 90 lives lost every day – that drives our mission to make the use of opioids safer.
The Personal Impact of Opioid Addiction
This past June, Express Scripts launched one of the industry’s boldest efforts to make the use of opioid medications safer for our members, and help address a problem now deemed worthy of national emergency status.
While this crisis has reached national scale, it’s the personal impact that drives our mission. Opioid addiction cuts across all walks of life, impacting your neighbor, your colleague, your babysitter, your child.
After just ten days on a prescription opioid, one in five people become long term users. For those who overdose, the average time between first dose and death is only two and a half years. Most startling: we are losing 90 lives to pain killers every day. Together, we can fight the growing weight of these statistics.
Advanced Opioid ManagementSM is a comprehensive approach to safe opioid prescribing that includes patient education, physician alerting, and safe disposal along with limits on the quantity and type of opioid medication for people new to opioid therapy.
We still have a lot of work to do, but together, with our clients, we are making a meaningful difference in the lives of our members and their families.