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Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 1/16/18
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Seats at the opioid litigation table are rearranged; Simmons partner loses spot on executive committee
Jan 16, 2018 | Madison - St. Clair Record (WI)
By Staff
District Judge Dan Polster ordered plaintiff lawyers in national opioid litigation to rearrange seats at the table after a protest against the original executive committee rung out from West Virginia. -
New York City Program Takes Controversial Approach to Opioid Crisis (AUDIO)
Jan 15, 2018 | WNYC (NY)
By Staff
There's no single solution to the opioid crisis, but a New York City program is taking a controversial approach to fighting the epidemic. AUDIO LINK: https://www.wnyc.org/story/harm-reduction-how-one-new-york-city-program-tackles-opioids/ -
Stop opioid addiction where it starts: in hospitals (EDITORIAL)
Jan 15, 2018 | Journal Sentinel (WI)
By Blake Farmer
Doctors at some of the largest U.S. hospital chains now acknowledge that they went overboard with opioids to make people as pain-free as possible and now they shoulder part of the blame for the nation’s opioid crisis. In an effort to be part of the cure, they’ve begun to issue an uncomfortable warning to patients: You’re going to feel some pain. -
ALBANY COUNTY FILES FEDERAL LAWSUIT OVER THE OPIOID CRISIS
Jan 15, 2018 | Spectrium News (NY)
By Staff
Albany County is suing opioid manufacturers to try to recover the costs of fighting heroin use. -
5 Local Counties Join Opioid-related Lawsuits
Jan 13, 2018 | Telegraph Herald (IA)
By Allie Hinga
Five local counties have joined in legal action being filed against pharmaceutical companies, alleging those businesses played a role in creating the nationwide opioid epidemic. -
‘This is an epidemic’
Jan 16, 2018 | Gulf Coast News Today (AL)
By Cliff McCollum
At a press conference held in Robertsdale Jan. 10, County Commissioner Chris Elliott and Baldwin County Sheriff Hoss Mack highlighted the opioid drug issue in Baldwin County and further explained why the county was moving forward on a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors. -
7News This Morning on Fox
Jan 16, 2018 | WNYFCD (FOX)
By Watertown, NY
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32076426?token=468a77ce-0e6c-4f7f-ab3f-a5acccda00f5 -
News 9 This Morning
Jan 16, 2018 | KWTV (CBS)
By Oklahoma City, OK
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32076438?token=468a77ce-0e6c-4f7f-ab3f-a5acccda00f5 -
Spectrum News All Night at 3:30
Jan 16, 2018 | SPECTNW (Spectrum News)
By Albany, NY
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32076467?token=468a77ce-0e6c-4f7f-ab3f-a5acccda00f5
Commentary and FYIs
Northeast (NY)
Midwest (IA)
Southeast (AL)
Broadcast Media Coverage
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Jan 16, 2018 | Madison - St. Clair Record (WI)
By Staff
District Judge Dan Polster ordered plaintiff lawyers in national opioid litigation to rearrange seats at the table after a protest against the original executive committee rung out from West Virginia.
Four lawyers lost seats, and five replaced them.
Three lawyers lost seats because Polster limited every firm to one seat.
Jayne Conroy of John Simmons’s firm in Alton lost a seat because Paul Hanly of that firm holds one of three positions as lead counsel.
Linda Singer of Motley Rice in Mount Pleasant, S.C., lost a seat because Joseph Rice of that firm holds a position as lead counsel.
Burton LeBlanc of Baron and Budd in Dallas surrendered a seat in favor of Roland Tellis of the same firm.
Polster took charge of opioid cases from all district courts on Dec. 8, by assignment of the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multi District Litigation.
Litigation to date mostly involves counties suing manufacturers and distributors, but all parties expect it to involve many more plaintiffs and defendants.
On Dec. 18, about 150 plaintiffs’ lawyers gathered in Cleveland.
On Dec. 20, Peter Weinberger of Cleveland nominated Hanly, Rice, and Paul Farrell Jr., of Huntington, W.V., to lead an executive committee.
Weinberger nominated 15 other lawyers for the committee.
“During the meeting, a motion was made to approve a list of individuals to serve in leadership capacity on behalf of plaintiffs,” Weinberger wrote.
“The result was an overwhelming consensus approving this list. In the voice vote, there were no objections raised.”
John Yanchunis of Morgan and Morgan in Tampa objected the next day on behalf of a group of local governments in West Virginia.
His firm has filed opioid suits in association with Truman Chafin and Leitia Chafin of Williamson, Harry Bell of Charleston, and Mark Troy of Charleston.
He wrote that what the motion represented as an open, transparent and fair process was anything but that.
“It was simply a venue for the proposed slate to reveal that they had chosen themselves, and done so without input from the others in attendance and without disclosing the criteria applied,” Yanchunis wrote.
He wrote that a case impacting hundreds if not thousands of municipalities and millions of individuals demanded much more from a leadership selection process.
His group viewed it as their duty to object, “following significant consideration and with reflective reticence given the gravity of this matter,” he wrote.
He wrote that the proposed slate, slate included multiple attorneys from the same firms to the exclusion of extremely well qualified lawyers, failed to comply with wishes that Polster expressed in an informal conference call on Dec. 12.
Yanchunis identified his firm, Morgan and Morgan, as the largest plaintiff firm in the U. S., with more than 360 lawyers and 2,300 support staff in nine states.
He described how firms on the proposed slate have litigated opioid cases together, and wrote that the number of independent members was far fewer than the number in the motion.
He wrote that selection of plaintiff leadership in multi district litigation typically involves individual applications, and that applications are often followed by an opportunity to appear before the court.
“That critical process was circumvented here, and the result smacks of unfairness,” he wrote.
Two plaintiff groups, on the fringe so far, filed milder responses.
Hospitals approved the slate except for its failure to include a seat for them.
Health plans of labor unions approved the slate entirely and asked only for seats on a plaintiff steering committee.
On Dec. 21, Polster directed plaintiffs to propose another slate.
He wrote that he didn’t want to micro manage, “but it is important that the attorneys and the parties believe that the process is fair, open and transparent.”
He opened a seat for hospitals and a seat for union health plans.
“There should also be no more than one person from any one law firm on the executive committee,” Polster wrote.
On Jan. 3, Weinberger proposed a slate that no longer included Conroy, Singer, LeBlanc, or Jennifer Connolly of Hagens Berman in Washington.
Instead of excluding Morgan and Morgan, the slate added James Young from that firm’s office in Jacksonville.
To fill the seats Polster created, the slate added James Dugan of New Orleans for hospitals and Don Barrett of Nashville, Tenn., for union health plans.
It also added James Cecchi of Roseland, N.J., and Eric Kennedy of Cleveland.
Members remaining from the original slate are Elizabeth Cabraser, Erin Dickinson, Paul Geller, Michael Fuller, Mark Lanier, Peter Mougey, Ellen Relkin, Lynn Sarko, Hunter Shkolnik, Christopher Seeger, and Tellis of Baron and Budd.
At a hearing on Jan. 9, Polster took a drastic tone.
“About a hundred and fifty Americans are going to die today, just today, while we’re meeting,” he said.
He said everyone shares responsibility and no one has done enough to abate it.
“That includes the manufacturers, the distributors, the pharmacies, the doctors, the federal government and state government, local government, hospitals, third party payors and individuals,” Polster said.
“The federal court is probably the least likely branch of government to try and tackle this but candidly, the other branches of government, federal and state, have punted. So it’s here.”
He said his objective was to do something meaningful in 2018.
“I’m confident we can do something to dramatically reduce the number of opioids that are being disseminated, manufactured, and distributed,” Polster said.
“We need a whole lot, new systems in place, and we need some treatment.
“We don’t need a lot of briefs and we don’t need trials.
“We have managed in the last two years, because of the opioid problem, to do what our country has not done in 50 years which is, for two consecutive years, reduce the average life expectancy of Americans.
“If we don’t do something ion 2018, we will have accomplished it for three years in a row, which we haven’t done since the flu epidemic one hundred years ago wiped out ten percent of our population.”
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New York City Program Takes Controversial Approach to Opioid Crisis (AUDIO)
Jan 15, 2018 | WNYC (NY)
By Staff
AUDIO LINK: https://www.wnyc.org/story/harm-reduction-how-one-new-york-city-program-tackles-opioids/
There's no single solution to the opioid crisis, but a New York City program is taking a controversial approach to fighting the epidemic.
It's called "harm reduction,” and it's not new. The non-punitive approach aims to reduce the harmful consequences of drug use. For some programs around the country that means giving access to sterile needles, and, in the case of The Washington Heights Corner Project, a bathroom where users can inject drugs knowing that if they overdose, someone will come to their aid.
Takeaway Producer Alexandra Botti takes us to Washington Heights, Manhattan, for a look at how it works.
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Stop opioid addiction where it starts: in hospitals (EDITORIAL)
Jan 15, 2018 | Journal Sentinel (WI)
By Blake Farmer
Doctors at some of the largest U.S. hospital chains now acknowledge that they went overboard with opioids to make people as pain-free as possible and now they shoulder part of the blame for the nation’s opioid crisis. In an effort to be part of the cure, they’ve begun to issue an uncomfortable warning to patients: You’re going to feel some pain.
Even for people who’ve never struggled with drug abuse, studies are finding that patients are at risk of addiction anytime they go under the knife.
“I had the C-section, had the kiddo,” said Michelle Leavy of Las Vegas. “And then they tell me, ‘It’s OK, you can keep taking the pain medications, it’s fine.’”
Leavy is a mother of three and a paramedic who has dealt with many patients coping with addiction. She welcomed the high-dose intravenous narcotics while in the hospital and, upon her release, gladly followed doctors’ orders to keep ahead of the pain with Percocet pills.
But then she needed stronger doses. Soon, she realized, she was no longer treating pain.
“Before I went to work, I took them, and to get the kids after school, I had to take them,” she said. “Then I was taking them just to go to bed. I didn’t really realize I had a problem until the problem was something more than I could have taken care of myself.”
She said she was becoming like the patients with addiction problems that she transported by ambulance, lying to emergency room doctors to con a few extra doses.
Soon she lost her job and her fiancé, before going to rehab through American Addiction Centers and stitching her life back together.
Opioid addiction is a reality that has been completely disconnected from where it often starts — in a hospital. Anesthesiologist David Alfery said he was rarely stingy with the pain medicine.
“If I could awaken them without any pain whatsoever, I was the slickest guy on the block, and it was a matter of enormous pride,” he said.
Alfery is part of a working group at the Nashville-based consulting firm Health Trust behind hospital efforts to set aside rivalry and swap ideas about a top priority: reducing opioid use.
“It starts with patient expectations, and I think, over the years, patients have come to expect more and more in terms of, ‘I don’t want any pain after surgery,’ and it’s an unrealistic expectation,” Alfery said.
How pain was treated
That expectation exists in part because pain treatment was institutionalized. Hospitals are graded on how well they keep someone’s pain at bay. And doctors can feel institutional pressure, and on a personal level.
“I just wanted my patient not to be in pain, thinking I was doing the right thing for them and certainly not an outlier among my colleagues,” said Mike Schlosser, chief medical officer for a division of HCA, the nation’s largest private hospital chain.
Schlosser spent a decade as a spinal surgeon putting his patients at HCA’s flagship facility in Nashville through some of the most painful procedures in medicine, like correcting back curvature. He said he genuinely wanted to soothe the hurt he caused.
“But now looking back on it, I was putting them at significant risk for developing an addiction to those medications,” he said.
Using HCA’s vast trove of data, he found that for orthopedic and back surgeries, the greatest risk isn’t infection or some other complication — it’s addiction.
So the nation’s largest private hospital chain is rolling out a new protocol prior to surgery. It includes a conversation Schlosser basically never had when he was practicing medicine.
“We will treat the pain, but you should expect that you’re going to have some pain. And you should also understand that taking a narcotic dose so high that you have no pain, really puts you at risk of becoming addicted to that narcotic,” Schlosser said, recounting the new recommended script for surgeons speaking to their patients.
Besides issuing the uncomfortable warning, sparing use of opioids also takes more work on the hospital’s part — trying nerve blocks and finding the most effective blend of non-narcotic medicine. Then after surgery, the nursing staff has to stick to it. If someone can get up and walk and cough without doubling over, maybe they don’t need potentially addictive drugs, or at least not in high dosage, he said.
There are potential benefits aside from avoiding addiction.
“I’ve had people tell me that the constipation resulting from opioid use was way worse than the kidney stone,” said Valerie Norton, head of the pharmacy and therapeutics council for Scripps Health System in San Diego, which is participating in the Health Trust working group.
“There are lots of other complications from opioids — severe constipation, nausea, itching, hallucinations, sleepiness. We really need to treat these drugs with respect and give people informed consent. And let people know these are not benign drugs.”
Managing the optics
Of course, business-wise, no one wants to be known as the hospital where treatment hurts more.
“You don’t want to portray the fact that you’re not going to treat people appropriately,” said John Young, national medical director of cardiovascular services for LifePoint Health, another player at the table with Health Trust. The Nashville-based hospital chain is putting special emphasis on how it handles people coming into the ER looking for pain medicine.
Young said tightening up on opioids becomes a delicate matter but it’s the right thing to do.
“We really do have a lot of responsibility and culpability and this burden, and so we have to make sure we do whatever we can to stem this tide and turn the ship in the other direction,” he said.
While hospitals get their ship in order, some patients are taking personal responsibility.
Now that she’s in recovery, Michelle Leavy won’t touch opioids. That meant she had emergency gallbladder surgery in 2017 without any narcotics. Leavy said she was nervous about telling her doctors about her addiction, but they were happy to find opioid alternatives.
“I mean, it hurt,” she said. “But I lived.”
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ALBANY COUNTY FILES FEDERAL LAWSUIT OVER THE OPIOID CRISIS
Jan 15, 2018 | Spectrium News (NY)
By Staff
Albany County is suing opioid manufacturers to try to recover the costs of fighting heroin use.
The suit was filed in federal court earlier this month, and comes as counties across the state are pursuing legal action against pharmaceutical companies. The key argument is that companies knew about the risk of opioid addiction but did not properly warn doctors and patients. Albany County Executive Dan McCoy explains more.
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5 Local Counties Join Opioid-related Lawsuits
Jan 13, 2018 | Telegraph Herald (IA)
By Allie Hinga
Five local counties have joined in legal action being filed against pharmaceutical companies, alleging those businesses played a role in creating the nationwide opioid epidemic.
The remainder of this article is under paywall: http://www.telegraphherald.com/news/tri-state/article_0adfe150-ea25-5df3-9d9c-d315120c0026.html
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Jan 16, 2018 | Gulf Coast News Today (AL)
By Cliff McCollum
At a press conference held in Robertsdale Jan. 10, County Commissioner Chris Elliott and Baldwin County Sheriff Hoss Mack highlighted the opioid drug issue in Baldwin County and further explained why the county was moving forward on a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors.
Mack said the county has seen a substantial rise in the number of prescription pills seized in drug searches across the county, as well as an increase in the use of other drugs like heroin, methamphetamines and fentanyl.
“We’re tracking about a 56 percent increase in the use of heroin,” Mack said. “Most people that become addicted to opioids end up transitioning to heroin. If they have been addicted to an opioid drug, they transition to heroin. If they can’t get heroin, they go to meth.”
Elliott said in 2017 alone, the county had seen 26 opioid related deaths.
Elliott said the opioid epidemic has and will likely continue to cost Baldwin County millions of dollars, including increased costs for dealing with drug-addicted inmates in the county’s jail.
“We’re booking thousands into our jail every year, and we’re starting to see a 10 to 15 percent range of inmates coming in that are having issues related to drugs,” Mack said. “We’re seeing those numbers coming in higher now.”
Mack said that the county does have to send some inmates to local hospitals to deal with potential overdose or withdrawal issues - which also causes cost increases for the county.
“On average, it’s not unusual for us to transfer to an emergency room and incur a $5,000 bill rather quickly,” Mack said.
Mack said this year his office would be assigning a narcotics officer to work nothing but prescription drug abuse cases, partnering with the DEA on several pending investigations.
Mack said he applauded the commission for taking legal action to try to help manage the opioid problem.
“We all have to work together,” Mack said. “This isn’t just a law enforcement problem. It transcends into a medical issue and a government issue because the county is having to foot the bill.”
Elliott said while the suit is primarily focused on manufacturers and distributors, any funds collected in the suit could go toward helping law enforcement investigate local physicians and dentists who might be overprescribing.
Elliott also noted anyone who had a legitimate use for opioid pain killers, like cancer patients or those with chronic pain issues, the lawsuit would not affect their relationship with their doctors.
Elliott said he was not aware if the suit had been filed yet, but said he expected it to be filed soon if it had not.
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Jan 16, 2018 | WNYFCD (FOX)
By Watertown, NY
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32076426?token=468a77ce-0e6c-4f7f-ab3f-a5acccda00f5
Rough Transcript:st. lawrence county is filing a lawsuit against large drugmakers. it claims overzealous marketing and false promises led to the opioid crisis. 7news reporter keith benman has the story. we see the human cost of opioid addiction in scenes like this. drug suspects being hauled off to jail. emergency services and emergency rooms stressed responding to overdoses. the county averages about a dozen overdose deaths per year. stephen button, st. lawrence county attorney: "our county, as well as many other counties within new york state as well as the united states, has been pounded by the opioid crisis." so far, the buck has stopped here when it comes to the opioid crisis. the county has racked up huge bills for both treatment and incarceration tied to addiction. in this lawsuit, the county says the buck should stop with big pharmaceutical companies, which have made huge profits on the sale of opioids. st. lawrence joins more than a dozen other new york counties in filing the lawsuit. it's not only seeking to recoup medical costs. the lawsuit says much of the county's illegal drug trade is driven by the over- prescription of opioids. stephen button, st. lawrence county attorney: "a significant number of street drug users did not start out as street drug users. they actually started out with valid, legal prescriptions. purdue pharma is one of the drugmakers named in the county's lawsuit. it says it is now developing opioids in forms that are more difficult to misuse. button feels big drugmakers already being called to task for the crisis by federal authorities may speed resolution of the county's lawsuit.
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Jan 16, 2018 | KWTV (CBS)
By Oklahoma City, OK
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32076438?token=468a77ce-0e6c-4f7f-ab3f-a5acccda00f5
Rough Transcript: new efforts are being made to combat the state's opioid addiction cris. ns9's grant hermes joins us with two plans aimed at stopping the wave of these dangerous drugs. grant? those plans were unveiled at a recent meeting of attorney general mike hunter's opioid commission... and both will need a lot of support to work. the first plan is a new tax. a draft of the bill would impose a 10 percent tax on the first sale of opioids in the state.. meaning distributors of the drugs would feel the greatest impact. that plan would need to garner support from both lawmakers and the governor... a tall order since the state still hasn't filled the multi-million dollar budget hole from last year. money from that tax would go to the state addiction treatment programs. the other plan is already in place in most of the country.. it's called a good sumaritan law. it gives immunity to drug users if they call 9-1-1 if to report an overdose. that lahas been proposed for the past two years and has failed both times over concerns about law and order. oklahoma is currently suing some of the nations largest drug companies for misrepresenting the addictiveness of opioids. the trial for that lawsuit is set for may of 2019.
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Spectrum News All Night at 3:30
Jan 16, 2018 | SPECTNW (Spectrum News)
By Albany, NY
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32076467?token=468a77ce-0e6c-4f7f-ab3f-a5acccda00f5
Rough Transcript: albany county filed a federal lawsuit against opioid manufacturers hoping to redeem the millions of dollars they spend fighting against heroin. county executive dan mccoy says nearly 80% of heroin users begin their addiction by abusing opioids. he says pharmacies know of this problem -- yet continue to prescribe and even push the drug onto patients and doctors. "the federal court is where we're going to make a difference because i said to someone earlier, i go, "what's th difference between a drug dealer on the corner and these pharmaceutical reps that wear suits that are pushing drugs knowing that the effect they're having is the same afect the drug dealer on the corner is having kiling people?"
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