Drug Tests for Painkillers Could Save $25 Billion Every Year

Prescription drug abuse is costing the United States over $323 billion a year, according to a new study from Laffer Associates and Millennium Research Institute. The research team found that random urine tests could be a cheap way for employers, insurance companies, and taxpayers to save $25 billion. The study found that for every dollar spent on the tests, three dollars could be saved.

The research team studied test results for more than 260,000 individual patients over a one-year period, and found that six tests per year significantly increased the probability that patients would adhere to their prescribed amounts. Testing reduced the rate of abuse by more than 35%.

While the researchers found that chronic pain is a real problem for many Americans, it is also true that some patients abuse their pain medications by not taking them properly, using them along with illegal drugs or alcohol, or even selling them. The study is the first to look at the cost-effectiveness of random drug testing at a time when Congress is trying to find $1.2 trillion in budget cuts, some of which must be from health-care expenses.

“Our analysis of the data demonstrates a clear correlation between increased (drug testing) and the probability that patients will adhere to their medications,” said Dr. Wayne Winegarden, the principal investigator in the study. “The net economic benefit of clinically recommended test regimens is between $7 and $25 billion per year for two to six tests.”

Americans are abusing prescription drugs in record amounts, and decreasing their consumption of cocaine and heroin. In fact, today more people are dying from prescription drug abuse and overdoses than those caused by heroin and cocaine. The main drugs of choice are ones prescribed for chronic and severe pain, and are derived from either synthetic or natural opium. Opiate painkillers are highly addictive and in the same chemical family as heroin and morphine.

This does not mean that millions of Americans should not use these drugs. A July 2011 report from the Institute of Medicine found that 116 million Americans are in chronic pain, and the cost of their medication is about $635 billion a year.

“Physicians need to be comfortable prescribing meditation,” said Dr. Alex Cahana, professor and chief of the Division of Pain Medicine, University of Washington. “Urine drug testing is a tool to help us do that responsibly. It is encouraging to know that these tests may create savings for taxpayers and the healthcare system.”

Some people are arguing, however, that drug testing is already too pervasive in the United States. Some states now require people to submit to drug tests before they can receive welfare benefits or unemployment compensation. Among the states with such laws are Arizona, Missouri, Florida, and Indiana. But 36 state legislatures are considering similar measures that would require the tests as a condition for food stamps, unemployment insurance, home heating assistance, public housing, welfare benefits, or other programs. Twenty states do not give unemployment benefits to people who were fired because of drug use.

Proponents of the policies say that more employers are requiring drug tests as a condition for hiring and this policy is no different. The number of welfare applicants tends to decline in states that require drug tests, so it becomes a way for states to save money.

Those against such policies argue that they are unconstitutional, pointing to a federal court ruling that declared a Michigan law requiring all welfare recipients to be drug tested was a violation of civil rights because the Constitution specifically prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures of property. The ACLU recently filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida using the same argument. Others are saying that requiring drug tests results in needy people not getting the benefits they need to survive this economic downturn.

Finally, Linn State Technical College in Missouri announced this year that it would become the first public college requiring urine tests for illegal drugs as a condition of studying at the school. The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups immediately sued the school and won a temporary injunction.

Linn State’s policy would have required incoming freshmen to pay $50 for the tests which detect cocaine, amphetamines, methamphetamines, marijuana, opiates, PCP, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, methadone, methaqualone, propoxpyphene, and oxycodone. Officials at the college argued that their students are being trained for jobs that use heavy equipment, and they need to be a drug-free campus for safety reasons.

The ACLU and other plaintiffs are arguing that the college’s tests constitute an illegal search and an invasion of privacy.