# M E M B E R S H I P M AT T E R S
February 2018
The Chamber Update Welcome New Members Central Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Jenna Reedy 415 N. Zarfoss Drive York, PA 17404 (800) 632-9063 jreedy@rabbittransit.org rabbittransit.org
Cumberland Valley Cleaning Brian McWilliams 718 Olson Dr. Carlisle, PA 17013 (717) 385-7734 cvalley@cvclean.com cvalleyclean.com
Mary Williams Photography
Mary Williams 117 W. High St. Carlisle, PA 17013 (717) 586-0659 Mary@marywilliamsphotography.com marywilliamsphotography.com
T-Mobile
Anthony Greiman 245 S. Spring Garden St. Carlisle, PA 17013 (717) 906-1395 Tong.g@pwcwireless.com
From The President Our Chamber has been working with the PA Chamber of Business and Industry on one of the largest issues impacting our employers statewide: opioid addiction and its impact among injured workers. Formularies are standard in regular and publicly-funded health insurance to help ensure appropriate patient care, address over-prescribing of medication, and premature or inappropriate prescribing of opioids. They offer a flexible approach that makes treatment of typical patients more efficient, facilitates exceptions for unique cases, and addresses the outlier instances of over-prescribing. We recognize that Pennsylvania is facing a prescription drug and opioid abuse epidemic and seem to struggle particularly with respect to injured workers: PA ranked third in a recent 25-state study of opioid use among injured workers, measuring 78 percent higher than the median state. Utilizing a prescription drug formulary in workers’ compensation has helped mitigate prescription drug over-prescribing and addiction in many other states. For example, Ohio implemented its formulary in 2011 and has been able to reduce by half the number of workers’ compensation patients considered opioid dependent – from 9,343 to 4,723. John Hanna, RPh, MBA, the former Pharmacy Director at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation said: “Our workers comp drug formulary has been a critical part of our statewide effort to fight prescription drug and opioid overuse and abuse.” These bills also help ensure that Utilization Review Organizations, which resolve questions related to medical treatment, are property certified. This guarantee will instill greater confidence in URO decisions and complements the drug formulary by ensuring that qualified experts are holding all parties accountable to properly apply the formulary. Both of these reforms would improve outcomes for injured workers and continue the critical work of our lawmakers to combat the prescription drug and opioid epidemic. We would like to hear from you in regard to this issue and the bills that our PA Senate and House are currently considering and we want to hear your perspective. Michelle Hornick Crowley
Women 4 Women Don’t Let Your Holidays Be Hectic Women 4 Women, sponsored by UPMC Pinnacle, hosted “Don’t Let Your Holidays Be Hectic.” Presenters Dr. Melissa Brown, and Sharon Veet, BSN, UPMC Pinnacle; Amber Clay, Med Staffers; Jill Kerstetter, Sweet William Floral spoke about organization, stress relief tactics, decoration, and food preparation.