Drug and alcohol testing is an essential program that increases safety at your workplace and reduces the risk of employees being impaired at your facility. There's been a recent increase in medical prescriptions for drugs like marijuana and opioids (oxycontin, oxycodone, hydrocodone, etc.), which is why it's important for employers to understand how these prescriptions affect safety-sensitive employees in the drug testing process, what the process is when an employee has a prescription, and why you may need to implement new procedures to ensure your facility stays as safe as possible.
In 2018, Psychemedics, a pioneer in using hair for drug testing, saw one out of every 28 drug test samples return lab-positive for opioids. After a medical review officer (MRO) reviewed the drug tests, they overturned more than 60 percent of the tests because the donor had a valid prescription for opioids, like oxycontin, oxycodone or hydrocodone.
When an MRO reviews a drug test that returns positive for opioids, the donor is then asked for a valid medical prescription. If the donor has a valid medical prescription, then the non-negative drug test is marked as negative. Regardless of a prescription, employees in safety-sensitive positions pose a potential risk for the workplace if they're using opioids that impair their judgment. In this case, Psychemedics indicated that one out of every 28 employees who took a hair drug test came back positive for opioids at the lab before the MRO reviewed their prescription status.
With MROs marking 60 percent of opiate-positive drug tests negative because of a valid prescription, it means that for every two hair drug tests that were reported as positive for opioids, three were reported as negative because the donor had a valid prescription. In 2018, we saw the lab positivity rate drop from one in every 22 tests to one in every 28 tests, and while 2016 was a peak usage year, since then we've seen the percentage of MRO overturns due to valid prescriptions increase from 50 percent to 60 percent of all positive opioid tests.
How to protect your workplace
Establishing a drug testing policy helps mitigate risk and creates a safer working environment, but that is not the only thing employers should rely on. It's important to educate and train your team on identifying the signs for a reasonable suspicion drug test. Reasonable suspicion drug testing allows employers to maintain a safe working environment by performing a drug test when there is evidence or reasonable cause to suspect an employee of impairment or drug use.
Establishing and implementing a Medical Disclosure Policy will also help protect your company from legal drug use. With a Medical Disclosure Policy, if employees are using a prescription that could impair them, then they are responsible for notifying their employer. Under these circumstances, if an employee fails to notify the employer, then the employer can take action on a passed drug test even if the employee has a prescription because he or she violated company policy.
"It's imperative employers understand the risks and costs associated with prescription opioid use in the workplace and decipher and abide by state laws to implement not only a drug testing policy, but also a clear and concise medical disclosure policy to further protect their employees and maintain safety and compliance," said Frank Bernard, vice president of compliance and administration at DISA Global Solutions.
Employers face many risks when an employee in a safety-sensitive position is under the influence of and/or uses prescription opioids. Employers should also be concerned about higher insurance premiums, employee turnover, absenteeism, increases in accidents and workers' compensation claims, and reduced employee productivity. A drug testing "cost of abuse" calculator can determine the "hidden costs" employers shoulder from an employee abusing drugs. Drug abuse costs employers more than $7,000 per employee, but according to a recent whitepaper from Current Consulting, safety-sensitive employees abusing drugs add more than $35,000 in hidden costs for employers.
For more information, visit www. disa.com or call (800) 752-6432.
