Even as opiate abuse has become a growing problem, overdose deaths involving sedatives and antiseizure medications in the benzodiazepine category have also risen steeply, according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health and summarized in Reuters Health.

Benzodiazepines are most often prescribed for anxiety disorders, mood disorders such as depression, and insomnia. Benzodiazepines typically used to treat anxiety or depression include alprazolam (Xanax), chlordiazepoxide (Librium), diazepam (Valium) and lorazepam (Ativan). The benzodiazepine clonazepam (Klonopin) is used for seizures, while oxazepam (Serax) and temazepam (Restoril) are used for insomnia.

Benzodiazepines are one of the more common prescription drugs used recreationally. When used recreationally benzodiazepines are usually administered orally but sometimes they are taken intranasally or intravenously. Recreational use produces effects similar to alcohol intoxication. When illegally used as recreational drugs, benzodiazepines are often referred to on the street as benzos, temazies, jellies, eggs, moggies or vallies. These Schedule III and IV substances have also earned the dubious distinction of being second only to opioid painkillers like OxyContin as our nation’s most widely abused class of drug.

Prescriptions for benzodiazepines have more than tripled and fatal overdoses have more than quadrupled in the past 20 years, researchers found. “Overdoses rose at a faster rate than prescriptions, suggesting that people were using benzodiazepines in a riskier way over time,” said lead author Dr. Marcus Bachhuber, assistant professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

“Benzodiazepines have several known safety risks: in addition to overdose, they are conclusively linked to falls, fractures, motor vehicle accidents, and can lead to misuse and addiction,” Bachhuber told Reuters Health by email.

The study team used data from the annual Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys between 1996 and 2013, which asked U.S. adults whether they had filled one or more benzodiazepine prescriptions. In those 20 years, the number of adults with benzodiazepine prescriptions grew by more than two thirds, from 8.1 million to 13.5 million, the researchers found. In 1996, around 4 percent of people surveyed had filled a benzodiazepine prescription, and by 2013, this had risen to 5.6 percent. They also found that the amount of medication distributed had grown by three-fold. After standardizing doses of all drugs, they found that people with prescriptions received 1.4 times more medication in 2013 than 20 years earlier.

Based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overdose deaths involving benzodiazepines rose from 0.58 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 3.07 per 100,000 in 2013, according to the results in American Journal of Public Health. This increase seemed to level off after 2010 overall, but among certain groups, including people over age 65 and certain minorities, there was no plateau and the rate kept rising, the study found.

It may be wise for workers’ compensation claim administrators to submit treatment requests for benzodiazepines to the UR process when abuse or over prescribing is suspected.

Workers’ compensation premiums in California continue to grow at double-digit rates, according to the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau. The 2014 Oregon Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking Summary, which differs slightly from the WCIRB figures, showed California’s workers’ comp premium rates were $3.48 last year, topping No. 2 Connecticut by 61 cents. While rates in California are headed up, other states just announced rate reductions.

Nevada state officials announced that workers compensation insurance rates are heading lower, with the biggest decrease in loss cost rates since 2010. The lower rates are good for employers, said the announcement from the state Division of Insurance. Acting Insurance Commissioner Amy Parks approved a filing from the National Council on Compensation Insurance for an average decrease of 5.5 percent for Nevada workers’ compensation voluntary insurance loss costs.

An average decrease of 4.2 percent for workers’ compensation insurance assigned-risk rates was also approved.

The filing will take effect Tuesday. This decrease in loss costs is the largest since a 2010 filing when loss costs decreased by an average of 7.6 percent.

This suggests that the amount of reported workers’ comp claims will not grow over time by as large a proportion as previously anticipated. Both indemnity and medical loss components of workers’ comp, as analyzed by NCCI in its recently approved filing, showed improved experience and favorable loss development, according to Parks.

In addition to the average decrease of 4.2 percent for the assigned-risk market, NCCI also reduced its assigned-risk expense constant from $240 to $160. This change would tend to benefit smaller risks in the assigned-risk market and is thus a change that is favorable to small-business development in Nevada.

Pennsylvania businesses will see another decrease in workers’ compensation insurance rates, while benefit levels for injured workers will be maintained. Workers’ comp insurance rates will drop 0.90 percent, effective April 1, reducing a key expense for many companies and saving Pennsylvania businesses an estimated $20 million this year.

The rate reduction follows the Insurance Department’s approval of the Pennsylvania Compensation Rating Bureau’s annual loss cost filing. These loss costs are used to determine the premiums businesses pay for workers’ compensation insurance. The premium savings for an individual employer will vary based on the employer’s risk classification, claims experience, and other factors.

This is the fifth consecutive workers’ compensation insurance cut in as many years in Pennsylvania, and brings the cumulative savings to $570 million for the past five years. Workers’ compensation insurance covers the cost of medical care and rehabilitation for injured workers, lost wages, and death benefits for the dependents of those killed in work-related accidents.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation said that it wants to cut the average rate by 8.6 percent for the one-year period that begins July 1. The cut is projected to save private employers $113 million. The cut would be the latest in a series of reductions in premiums for private employers that began in 2011. If it is adopted by the bureau’s board next month, private employers will pay $463 million less a year than they did in 2011, a 28.2 percent reduction. The average rate would fall to $1.07 per $100 in payroll, the lowest rate in at least 40 years, the bureau said.

The bureau has credited lower rates to lower-than-expected claims costs and a decline in workplace injuries.

Nursing homes in California – and notably in Orange County – are outpacing the nation in embracing the most expensive form of therapy for their patients on Medicare, triggering an outcry from some therapists who say the therapy is frequently unnecessary.

The Orange County Register reports that 72 percent of Medicare rehabilitation patients in Orange County nursing homes in 2014 received treatment at the highest rate allowed. That compares to 66 percent statewide, and 58 percent nationwide, the CHCF Center for Health Reporting found in an analysis of Medicare data for the Orange County Register.

The cost to taxpayers is upward of $500 per patient per day, contributing significantly to the nearly $30 billion per year that Medicare pays nursing homes for all patient care.

The practice, known as ultra high care, can require sometimes frail patients to receive at least 12 hours of physical, occupational or speech therapy every week. Some therapists in nursing homes say they’re being told to give inappropriate treatment to patients, according to the three major therapist professional groups.

“We get calls from therapists who are being pressured to do practices that are unnecessary or illegal,” said Roshunda Drummond-Dye, director of regulatory affairs at the American Physical Therapy Association.

Melissa Lathon said she personally saw Medicare fraud skyrocket in her 16 years as a social services director at six nursing homes, including three in Orange County. “They would pretty much twist the therapists’ arms and say, we need another week at the ultra high level,” she said. And when she handled patient discharges, “If they still had Medicare benefits available, they would not let me discharge them.” She said she left the field after a supervisor ordered her to fill out a document saying a patient needed assistance in walking when he had clearly shown he was walking independently.

A handful of nursing home therapists have turned whistleblower, filing lawsuits under the federal False Claims Act. In November 2013, Mission Viejo-based Ensign Group agreed to pay $48 million to settle a case involving allegedly false rehab claims at Sea Cliff Healthcare Center in Huntington Beach and five nursing homes in other Southern California cities. Two therapists originally filed the suit. Ensign denied wrongdoing at the time and did not respond to questions for this article.

Pending cases against two of the nation’s largest nursing home chains, HCR Manor Care and Life Care Centers of America, allege managers pressured therapists to step up treatments. They also allegedly administered expensive therapy to dying patients. Both HCR and Life Care are fighting the lawsuits. Life Care has nursing homes in Garden Grove, La Habra and Lake Forest.

The recent $125 million settlement with Kindred Healthcare, the nation’s largest nursing home operator, a company with annual revenues topping $2.5 billion, sent its stock to its lowest point in nearly four years. Kindred denied wrongdoing.

A former California Highway Patrol officer who was seen engaging in physically strenuous outdoor activities while receiving workers’ compensation has been ordered to pay more than $183,000 in restitution.

The Sacramento Bee reports that Daniel Corey Clapp pleaded no contest to misdemeanor workers’ compensation insurance fraud in August 2014. He was sentenced to 60 days in county jail and three years probation, and ordered to make restitution to the CHP and State Compensation Insurance Fund.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White on Wednesday ordered Clapp to pay the CHP $151,927.01 for benefits he received and the costs incurred by the CHP to investigate the case. The judge also ordered Clapp to repay the State Compensation Insurance Fund $31,475.68 for disability benefit payments he received and investigative costs, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office news release.

On Jan. 3, 2012, Clapp filed a workers’ compensation claim for injuries to his shoulder, neck, knee and back arising from a struggle with a man he was attempting to arrest. Over the next two years, Clapp told his doctors he was unable to work because of the injuries, authorities said.

When fellow officers working traffic control saw Clapp drive by towing a camping trailer and ski boat, an investigation was initiated by the CHP’s Internal Affairs Division, Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit.

Investigators conducted surveillance during several camping and boating trips that Clapp took with his family. He was filmed hooking up a boat trailer and fifth-wheel camping trailer, launching the boat, and being very physically active, authorities said. Throughout this time, he was telling his supervisors that he was too disabled to do even office work.

During a deposition in his workers’ compensation case, Clapp was asked under oath if he had attempted to do any physical activities like camping, hunting, riding dirt bikes or boating. Clapp testified that he had not, but wished he could, and claimed he could only shuffle around the workbench in his garage.

Results of the CHP’s investigation were submitted to the District Attorney’s Office and prosecuted by the Insurance Fraud Unit.

A federal judge sentenced former California state senator Leland Yee on Wednesday to five years in prison after he acknowledged accepting thousands of dollars in bribes. Prosecutors had recommended an eight-year sentence, saying that would reflect the extent of Yee’s crimes. Yee’s attorneys had called for no more than five years and three months behind bars, saying Yee had a history of public service and his wife was ill.

“I take full responsibility for this. I accept my crimes, I am asking for lenience. I hope you look at my entire life and not just the crimes I committed,” Yee said just before sentencing. District Court Judge Charles Breyer rejected his request. “The crimes you committed were an attack on our democratic institutions. Mr Yee, you abused that trust,” he said. “These are very serious abuses. The most significant crime was that your vote was for sale.”

Yee and his codefendants pleaded guilty in federal court in San Francisco last July. For his part, Yee, 66, acknowledged that he participated in two criminal enterprises, the Leland Yee for Mayor Campaign 2011 and the Leland Yee for Secretary of State campaign. In connection with these campaigns, Yee admitted he (1) accepted $10,000 in exchange for using his influence as a state senator to assist in the process of obtaining a grant from the California Department of Public Health, (2) conspired to extort money from individuals by suggesting he would cast favorable votes for specific legislation only if the money were paid, (3) accepted a $11,000 bribe in exchange for arranging a meeting with another state senator to discuss specific legislation, (4) conspired with others to purchase weapons in the Philippines and import them illegally into the United States, and (5) provided more than $6,000 in cash to a campaign aid knowing the aid would launder the money by arranging to convert the cash into checks made payable to Yee’s Secretary of State campaign.

The federal indictments included accusations that Yee took bribes in exchange for voting for bills that favored his contributors. One bill involved regulations for medical marijuana, a second extended the life of the California State Athletic Commission, and a third prevents pro football players on non-California teams from filing workers’ compensation claims for their injuries.

The indictment said an undercover agent told one of his associates, Keith Jackson, a former San Francisco school board president who also worked as a consultant and fundraiser for Yee, that the owner of a National Football League team was prepared to contribute $60,000 to Yee if he would support the workers’ compensation bill. Jackson accepted, after contacting Yee, who voted for the bill, the indictment said. It said the money was never paid.

The judge gave Yee 30 days to surrender to the U.S. Marshal’s Service, which will turn him over to the federal prison system. James Lassart, Yee’s lawyer, asked the judge to recommend the sentence be served at the federal prison in Taft in Kern County. Yee rushed out of the courthouse with his lawyer who said: “He’s remorseful and he’s tired of this humiliation to his family and he’s tired of what I would call this circus.”