New Rules on Opioids

The REMS program is a program that was instituted for one type of opioid; it is paperwork, to be filled out by the patient and physician; now, it looks as if all long-acting opioids will need this REMS paperwork. There are pluses and minuses to this; the plus is possibly cutting down on medication abuse/overuse….the minus is it puts up one more barrier for patients and doctors, one more thing to do; with so much paperwork and hassle, it may be even tougher to find doctors willing to prescribe, and that is not a good thing.