Tag: prescription drugs
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Beshear, Stumbo credit law for reducing prescription-drug deaths, but reduction was far outnumbered by rise in heroin fatalities
UPDATE: Final, revised data show that prescription-drug deaths in Kentucky actually increased slightly, from 1,022 in 2011 to 1,031 in 2,012, according to the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center....
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As prescription painkillers become harder to get and abuse, heroin replaces them in Eastern and Southern Kentucky
Heroin use, which has been a problem in Northern and then Central Kentucky after the state began cracking down on prescription painkillers last year, has been spreading to the Southern...
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Kentucky, insurance companies are applying lessons learned in state’s hurried transition to managed-care Medicaid
By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News Gov. Steve Beshear rushed to transplant Medicaid into a new bed called managed care, hoping the new medium would save money and improve health,...
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Could Medicare Part D be an inadvertent enabler of prescription drug abuse?
UPDATE, Jan. 7: Medicare proposes giving itself authority to ban abusive prescribers, ProPublica reports. By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News An examination of the Medicare Part D program that Congress...
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Spring-clean the cabinet and dump your drugs Saturday, April 27
Dump your unwanted prescription drugs this Saturday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. as part of the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, which in the past has coordinated...
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FDA requires OxyContin pills to be non-crushable to deter abuse
The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it would block generic, crushable versions of OxyContin from coming to the market and approve the reformulated, non-crushable OxyContin, which deters abuse...
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National Rx Drug Abuse Summit, a Kentucky product, seeks to make the nation face up to its problem
The second annual National Rx Drug Abuse Summit, organized by Eastern Kentucky’s Operation UNITE, called for a national commitment to combating the country’s drug-abuse problem U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-5th...
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Poll shows health care costs are a burden for many Kentuckians
A recent statewide survey shows health-care costs are a burden for many Kentuckians, especially for those who are poor and don’t have insurance and put off getting care they need...
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Most Kentucky adults don’t know that drug overdose is the leading cause of death in the state, but those in the east do
Drug overdoses, driven largely by prescription drug abuse, overtook motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of unintentional deaths in Kentucky back in 2010 and remain the state’s leading cause...
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Legislature eases physician assistant rules; nurse practitioners’ prescription power, Medicaid prompt-payment bills, others linger
By Molly Burchett and Al Cross Kentucky Health News The Kentucky General Assembly has joined other states in easing the restrictions on physician assistants’ medical practice, but has held up...