Fewer members of Pittsburgh-based Highmark Health are receiving opioid prescriptions, the organization announced during a May 14 press conference with Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger.
Four things to know:
1. Highmark Health — the parent company of Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network and Highmark Health Plan — saw a 15 percent drop in opioid prescriptions filled last year among commercially insured members in Pennsylvania.
2. Ninety percent of Highmark's commercially insured members who filled an opioid prescription for the first time received a week's supply or less.
3. Highmark Health's progress on opioids comes two months after the organization finalized a joint venture with Geisinger to create a nonprofit organization that will serve a region spanning Clinton, Lycoming, Sullivan and Tioga counties in Pennsylvania.
4. Geisinger is widely known for its successful efforts to address opioid use. The health system has cut monthly opioid prescription volumes by nearly half since 2014. Geisinger clinicians have also treated 1,700 patients for opioid or alcohol use disorder since 2017 at its medication-assisted treatment clinics.