Narcan costs rising

With the rise of heroin overdoses, both locally and nationally, emergency services are facing a budget crunch from the associated costs with using Narcan.

Narcan blocks the effects of opioid overdoses by reversing the depression of the respiratory and nervous systems that lead to death.

The crunch comes from increased number of overdoses and the costs of Narcan gone up.

The liquid form used to cost around $1 a dose in the 1990s but now goes for $40. The high-end Evzio, which comes in a computerized package that tells how to self-administer a dose, sold for $690 in 2014. Now it is $4,500.

In December in Lawrence, there were 21 overdoses and four deaths. In January, there were 38 overdoses and three deaths. It doesn’t seem like it will let up in February.

“From midnight Thursday through Monday morning (last week), we had nine overdose runs and we had to use Narcan eight times,” said Buddy Fry, the executive director with Lawrence County EMS. He added that since Jan. 1, they have had 34 cases of heroin overdoses where they used 55 doses of Narcan.

He sent information to the Lawrence County Commissioners on Feb. 6 that in January 2016, there were around 950 runs for the month. This past January, they had 1,070 runs.

“That is a phenomenal increase,” Fry said. The trouble is that their budget is down from last year and while more runs should mean more money to pay for the services from billing the patients.

“That isn’t necessarily true because we could be billing more indigent people,” Fry said. “Because a lot of these people don’t have insurance.”

A drug overdose is an expensive operation. Instead of just one ambulance with two EMTs, a second ambulance and another two EMTs are called to the scene.

“We use maybe $300 worth of disposables. We have two vehicles rolling with wear and tear, we have four people minimum and two crews out of service that aren’t out there available to help if there is a heart attack or a car wreck,” Fry said. “So there are a lot of expenses being generated and a lot of it not being reimbursed because of a drug overdose.”

Fry said that it seems like overdoses on other types of medication is less than it used to be.

“Everything except for heroin overdoses, it seems to be down,” Fry said, adding that still see the occasional Xanax or aspirin overdose. “But many of those cases, the person is suicidal.”