The American journal of managed care
-
The societal burden of opioid use disorder (OUD) is considerable and contributes to increased healthcare costs and overdose deaths. However, the burden is not well understood. The purpose of this analysis is to estimate the state Medicaid programs' costs for treating OUD and how these costs have changed over time. ⋯ When the results were extrapolated to the entire United States, the Medicaid costs associated with OUD increased from more than $2 billion in 1999 to more than $8 billion in 2013. The total cumulative costs that were associated with OUD for this extrapolated 50-state sample over a 15-year time period amounts to more than $72.4 billion. OUD imposes considerable financial burden on state Medicaid programs, and the burden is increasing over time.