Findings from University of Nevada Yields New Data on Opioids (Aca Dependent Coverage Extension and Young Adults’ Substance-associated Ed Visits): Opioids

2026 FEB 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Investigators discuss new findings in Opioids. According to news reporting originating in Las Vegas, Nevada, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “The Affordable Care Act (ACA), enacted in 2010, aimed to improve health insurance coverage and access to care, notably through a provision extending dependent coverage up to age 26 years. This study investigates the ACA’s impact on substance use disorder (SUD)-associated emergency department (ED) visits among young adults aged 23 to 29 years.”

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the University of Nevada, “A quasi-experimental study analyzed opioid-and alcohol-associated ED visits and inpatient admissions among young adults (aged 23-25 [treatment] vs 27-29 [comparison] years) using 2007-2019 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample data. A difference-in-differences approach assessed the ACA’s impact, adjusting for covariates including sex, comorbidities, payer source, income, residence, and hospital region. Generalized linear models estimated adjusted ORs with 95% CIs, ensuring robust analysis of the ACA’s effects on substance-related health care utilization. Opioid-associated ED visits had no change between the treatment and comparison groups, whereas alcohol-associated ED visits declined more for the treatment group after the ACA (OR, 0.841; 95% CI, 0.828-0.855). No changes in inpatient admissions among opioid-or alcohol-associated visits, respectively, were seen between the 2 groups. Our findings indicate that the ACA’s implementation led to mixed effects on substance-associated health care utilization among young adults, with reduced alcohol-associated visits in the treatment group but unchanged discrepancies in opioid-associated ED visits and inpatient admissions between the 2 groups.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Further research is warranted to explore state-level variations and population-level substance use trends along with continuous monitoring to inform interventions addressing substance-associated public health challenges.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Aca Dependent Coverage Extension and Young Adults’ Substance-associated Ed Visits. American Journal of Managed Care, 2025;31(9). American Journal of Managed Care can be contacted at: Managed Care & Healthcare Communications Llc, 666 Plainsboro Rd, Ste 300, Plainsboro, NJ 08536, USA.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Jay J. Shen, University of Nevada, School of Public Health, Ctr Hlth Dispar Res, Las Vegas, NV, United States. Additional authors for this research include Refat Rasul Srejon, Timothy Grigsby and Chris Cochran.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.37765/ajmc.2025.89790. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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