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Opioid Misuse Treatment Spending Increases by More Than 1300%
According to a recently released report by FAIR Health, health spending for opioid dependence treatment increased by more than 1300% between 2011 and 2015.
“Since its inception around the beginning of the 21st century, the current epidemic of opioid abuse, dependence and overdoses has taken many lives, caused widespread suffering at every level of society and resulted in high economic costs,” FAIR Health researchers wrote in the recently released white paper.
The researchers examined claims of professional providers and segregated data that were indicative of opioid dependence and opioid abuse from the ICD-9 and ICD-10 diagnostic codes that reported claims in the FAIR Health dataset. The data were aggregated by a variety of fields, including state, procedure code category, procedure code, and year of service. The researchers used this data to identify trends and patterns in utilization and cost. Furthermore, the data were evaluated with single and multiple variables to look for distinct trends and associations.
According to the findings, from 2011 to 2015, insurers’ payments to hospitals, labs, treatment centers and other medical providers for opioid-related patients increased by 1375%, from $32 million to $446 million. The researchers noted that although health insurer costs for opioid patients is a small portion of medical spending, the sharp increase in spending is concerning.
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Study findings also showed that on average, insurers spend $3435 per year on average individual patients, compared with $19,333 for patients with an opioid dependence or misuse diagnosis.
In a similar study, presented at the 2016 Pain Week meeting, researchers discovered that opioid abuse increases overall costs. During the 12 months surrounding an initial abuse episode, excess costs reached $11,470. Total costs were largely driven by the price of treating opioid abuse (31%), and non-opioid drug abuse (28%). The annual opioid cost in the US in 2007 was estimate at $55.7 billion, and the per patient cost, on average, ranged from $10,000 to $20,000.
According to FAIR Health, the burden of opioid dependence on health care resources needs to be addressed by better medical school training, increase access to treatment services, and consumer education.
“Are medical school curricula adjusting to recognize the growing need for these services,” Robin Gelburd, JD, president of FAIR Health, and associates, asked in a statement. “Are insurers increasing the number of providers in their networks to ensure sufficient access? Are consumers being educated? It’s an issue that has to be dealt with in all quadrants.” —Julie Gould
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