• Robert Wieder, Nila Delarosa, Margarette Bryan, Ann Marie Hill, and William J Amadio.
• Department of Medicine and the New Jersey Medical School Cancer Center, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey, USA.
• Pain Med. 2014 Jan 1; 15 (1): 42-51.

PurposeWe tested the hypothesis that prescription coverage affects the prescribing of long-acting opiates to indigent inner city minority patients with cancer pain.Materials And MethodsWe conducted a chart review of 360 patients treated in the Oncology Practice at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey University Hospital, who were prescribed opiate pain medications. Half the patients were charity care or self-pay (CC/SP), without the benefit of prescription coverage, and half had Medicaid, with unlimited prescription coverage. We evaluated patients discharged from a hospitalization, who had three subsequent outpatient follow-up visits. We compared demographics, pain intensity, the type and dose of opiates, adherence to prescribed pain regimen, unscheduled emergency department visits, and unscheduled hospitalizations.ResultsThere was a significantly greater use of long-acting opiates in the Medicaid group than in the CC/SP group. The Medicaid group had significantly more African American patients and a greater rate of smoking and substance use, and the CC/SP group disproportionately more Hispanic and Asian patients and less smoking and substance use. Hispanic and Asian patients were less likely to have long-acting opiates prescribed to them. Pain levels and adherence were equivalent in both groups and were not affected by any of these variables except stage of disease, which was equally distributed in the two groups.ConclusionAppropriate use of long-acting opiates for equivalent levels of cancer pain was influenced only by the availability of prescription coverage. The group without prescription coverage and receiving fewer long-acting opiates had disproportionately more Hispanic and Asian patients.Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

50 keywords...

hide…