Public Health

Florida Blue, part of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, will drop coverage of OxyContin, a brand name prescription opioid, Jan. 1, 2018, according to the Miami Herald.

Toby Cosgrove, MD, CEO of Cleveland Clinic, called for healthcare providers to rethink pain management in an effort to help reverse the tide of the nation's ongoing opioid overdose epidemic, according to a recent viewpoint article.     

The U.S. Naval Hospital Naples, based in Italy, created a new program that allows local residents to return unused or expired prescription drugs to secured drop boxes.

Drug overdose deaths increased by nearly 21 percent last year — a jump that is more than the last four years combined, according to a preliminary CDC report released Friday.

One of the centerpieces of President Donald Trump's plan to fight the opioid epidemic is a large-scale advertising campaign, but the initiative has not received the necessary funding, according to The Hill.

Ten-year-old Rosa Maria Hernandez was released from a federal detainment center Friday, roughly 11 days after U.S. officials arrested her for crossing an immigration checkpoint to undergo emergency gallbladder surgery at Corpus Christi, Texas-based Driscoll Children's Hospital Oct. 24, The…

At least three Texas hospitals are treating several of the victims injured during a shooting at Sutherland Springs, Texas-based First Baptist Church Sunday that killed at least 26 people and injured at least 20 others, according to Kens-5 News.

A Chinese narcotics control officer refuted claims Friday that his nation was largely responsible for the U.S.' influx of illicit fentanyl in recent years, according to a report from The New York Times.

The House voted 242-174 Friday to reauthorize funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program through 2022, after letting it expire in September.

Beginning next week, Lansing, Mich., area emergency rooms will implement peer recovery coaches to encourage substance abuse treatment for patients admitted to ERs for opioid overdoses, according to a Lansing State Journal report.