• J Pain · Aug 2019

    Impact of Sequential Opioid Dose Reduction Interventions in a State Medicaid Program between 2002 and 2017.

    • Maria M Garcia, Kimberly Lenz, Bonnie C Greenwood, Michael C Angelini, Tyson Thompson, Karen M Clements, Rose P Mauro, and Paul L Jeffrey.
    • Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. Electronic address: maria.garciamd@umassmed.edu.
    • J Pain. 2019 Aug 1; 20 (8): 876-884.

    AbstractPolicies that address opioid dose limits may help to decrease high-risk opioid prescribing. We evaluated 3 sequential and progressive decreases in high-dose (HD) opioid limits implemented by Massachusetts Medicaid over 15 years. The study population included members ages 18 to 64 years with ≥1 claim for a schedule II opioid between January 2002 and March 2017. The 3 interventions consisted of prior authorization requirements for prescriptions exceeding the morphine equivalent dose (MED) HD dose limits: >360 mg (intervention 1a and 1b), >240 mg (intervention 2), and >120 mg (intervention 3). A segmented regression evaluated the change in natural log of the average daily MED (AD_MED). The natural log of the AD_MED decreased during the 6 quarters after intervention 1a (P < .001), immediately after intervention 1b (P = .0002), and continued to decrease over the following 8 quarters (P = .023). The natural log of the AD_MED decreased immediately after intervention 2 (P = .002) and again after intervention 3 (P < .001). The percentage of users exceeding the HD limits of 360 mg, 240 mg, and 120 mg MED decreased by 87.3%, 79.8%, and 75.2% from baseline, respectively. The natural log of the AD_MED decreased among members after implementation of 3 sequential and progressive HD prior authorization limits, as did the percentage of members exceeding each of the HD limits. PERSPECTIVE: This study demonstrates the longitudinal impact of a prior authorization policy-based HD limit in a Medicaid population. This study contributes to options for policymakers and other Medicaid programs as a potential strategy to assist in addressing the opioid epidemic.Copyright © 2019 the American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…