Last week the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) announced that the painkiller OxyContin, widely blamed for the nation’s opioid crisis, will no longer be newly prescribed for injured workers in the BWC system starting July 1. Following a recommendation from BWC Chief Medical Officer Terry Welsh, the agency’s board of directors voted to drop the drug from the BWC formulary and replace it with what Welsh calls “an equally effective but harder-to-abuse drug” named Xtampza ER. Welsh added the move was recommended by BWC’s Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, a diverse group of pharmacists and prescribing physicians who advise the bureau on matters regarding appropriate prescription and authorization of medicines. 2/22/2019