Governor Andrew Cuomo wants New York’s Department of Financial Services to investigate reports of nurses being denied life insurance for carrying the opioid reversal drug Naloxone.
Some nurses obtain Naloxone without a patient-specific prescription and administer it to drug users outside of a typical medical setting.
That’s become dangerous for first responders because of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid hundreds of times more potent than heroin.
Off-the-clock nurses can breathe in or come in contact with fentanyl while administering Naloxone.
Many insurance companies have not updated their policies to address fentanyl exposure.
