The latest in the string of ongoing lawsuits involving opioids has the epidemic making headlines once again. And industry experts like Health Rosetta co-founder Dave Chase share strategies for addressing it once and for all.
In The News
Earlier this month, Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals, struck the largest deal of the more than 3,500 lawsuits it faces.
Teva, according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, agreed to pay $150 million over 15 years and provide $75 million worth of generic Narcan, a medication used to counter the effects of opioid overdoses. This was done to resolve claims that the drug maker fueled an opioid epidemic in Texas due to improper marketing of addictive pain medications. Teva, however, didn’t admit to wrongdoing as part of their settlement with Texas.
And Teva isn’t the only one under legal fire for their alleged role in the epidemic.
A tentative settlement between hundreds of Native American tribes, Johnson & Johnson, and the country’s three largest drug distributors for $590M was also reached earlier this month. The settlement funds will be used to help provide addiction treatment and prevention programs to a population that has suffered disproportionately high addiction and death rates during the opioid epidemic.
While aware settlements like this aren’t the solution to the opioid crisis, Steven Skikos, a top lawyer for the tribes, points out “we are getting critical resources to tribal communities to help address the crisis.”
And these are just the latest headlines. So, in a seemingly endless cycle of lawsuits and settlements, what can be done to truly address and even end the opioid epidemic?
Ending the Cycle
According to Health Rosetta co-founder Dave Chase, investing in and rebuilding primary health care and building human-centric plans are critical to addressing not only rising health costs but the opioid addiction epidemic.
He equates U.S. health plans to Mr. Potato Head saying, “they kind of have all the pieces, but they don’t really work well together.” Chase recognizes, however, that the same pieces can be put together in different ways to best serve the insured.
For Chase, “this [epidemic] is entirely a self-inflicted wound by our health care system” and is “on us to fix.”
And Simpara is part of that solution.
We’re used to rethinking how things are done and rebuilding the benefits brokerage model in a way that puts people first because we’ve been doing it since day one. Our passion is people and putting affordable, high-quality health care within reach. That’s when meaningful change can begin.
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