Enlyte Sees Topicals Creating Rising Challenge to WC System

• Topical medications, which make up about 14% of out-of-network prescriptions, still account for more than 40% of out-of-network spending, according to a new report from Enlyte.
• Enlyte classified the drugs as “opportunistic products,” which include private-label topical analgesics and other “cost-inflated products,” representing just 3.9% of prescription volume but accounting for 20.5% of total costs.
• The P&C insurance industry claims technology and cost containment services provider said abusive pricing practices in topicals have contributed to the problem.
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Washington State WC Costs Force Local Public Safety Levy

• A Washington State Department of Labor & Industries proposal to raise the average rate employers pay for workers’ compensation insurance by an average of 4.9% has prompted the city council of Lake Forest Park to propose a temporary six-year levy lid lift, which will appear on the November 2025 ballot.
• If approved by voters, the levy would establish a long-term funding plan for essential operations, particularly in public safety.
• The proposed levy would support police staffing, 911 dispatch, jail operations, and mental health services—all areas impacted by inflation and escalating labor and benefit expenses.
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Broker Liberty Partners With California’s High Ground

• The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers said this week that it is “partnering” with Torrance, California-based High Ground Insurance Services. a regional insurance broker and risk management consultant.
• High Ground offers specialized expertise in workers’ compensation claims management, employee benefits plan administration, as well as loss-sensitive insurance program design, and coverage analysis.
• Financial details were not disclosed.
• The Gainesville, Florida firm said its “partnership model is designed to empower entrepreneurial agencies like High Ground to continue building their businesses while leveraging Liberty’s national resources” and “all while maintaining their local relationships and entrepreneurial spirit.”
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Texas Opioid Pill Mill Operators Sentenced

• A Texas pharmacy owner and three Texas pharmacists were sentenced recently in Houston for unlawfully distributing more than half a million opioid pills and other commonly abused prescription drugs, including to individuals paid to pose as patients by black market drug traffickers.
• The pharmacy owner, Arthur Billings, “and his co-conspirators brazenly operated a pill mill for years, selling dangerous narcotics to dealers through straw patients and fueling the opioid epidemic,” said Acting U.S. Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
• The prescriptions used to obtain the drugs from Health Fit were often fraudulent, issued in the names of physicians whose identities were stolen.
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