California May Make Dent in Low Rates of Naloxone Co-Prescribing

A California alliance of health providers and consumers is trying to raise the public's awareness of a new state law designed to broaden access to the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone.

The measure, approved by state legislators as Assembly Bill 2760 and signed into law by former Gov. Jerry Brown last September, requires prescribers of opioids to offer their patients a prescription for the opioid overdose reversal drug as well.

The attention to co-prescribing in California comes at a time when national leaders have lamented an extremely low rate of naloxone prescribing to pain patients at high risk of overdose, with the high cost of the overdose reversal drug cited as a contributing factor.

The California Chronic Care Coalition, which conducts efforts to help improve the health of Californians with chronic conditions, believes the state's requirement that naloxone be offered at the same time as an opioid is prescribed will lead to significant strides in preventing fatal overdose. “And since many caregivers are family members, it is important to make them aware that this potentially life-saving emergency treatment will be more readily available when opioids are prescribed,” coalition president and CEO Liz Helms said in a news release last month.

State Assembly member Jim Wood of Santa Rosa, author of the AB 2760 legislation, said in the news release from the California Chronic Care Coalition and the My Patient Rights patient advocacy group that the coalition launched, “Naloxone is a tool that can immediately save lives. And I hope this new law will provide an opportunity for discussion of the potential for accidental opioid overdose and how to prevent it.”

Modern Healthcare reported in December that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is urging more clinicians to prescribe naloxone. According to federal officials, fewer than 1% of patients who are prescribed opioids and are considered to be at high risk of an overdose are receiving the overdose reversal drug.

“The rates we're seeing of co-prescribing are exceedingly low and below the levels we would expect for those with an enhanced risk of overdose,” Brett Giroir, MD, assistant secretary for health at HHS and the agency's senior adviser on opioid policy, said in the December article.