Reports from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Add New Data to Research in Opioids (State drug caps associated with fewer Medicaid-covered prescriptions for opioid use disorder, 2017-2022): Opioids

2024 DEC 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Data detailed on opioids have been presented. According to news reporting originating from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “The Medicaid program is the largest payer of opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment, including medications for OUD (MOUD).”

Financial supporters for this research include National Institute on Drug Abuse; National Institutes of Health.

Our news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine: “Because of budget neutrality requirements, some Medicaid programs use prescription drug caps to limit the monthly number of prescriptions an enrollee can fill. This study examined the association between Medicaid prescription drug caps and Medicaid-covered prescriptions for 2 forms of MOUD (buprenorphine and naltrexone) from 2017 to 2022 using fee-for-service and managed care data from Medicaid’s State Drug Utilization Data. Ten states had monthly prescription drug caps, ranging from 3 to 6 prescriptions. Using multivariate linear regression, we estimated that enrollees in states with monthly drug caps filled 1489.3 fewer MOUD prescriptions per 100 000 enrollees. Further, compared with states with the smallest drug caps (3 drugs), enrollees in states with 4-, 5-, and 6-drug caps filled significantly more prescriptions per state-quarter (907.7, 562.6, and 438.9 more prescriptions, respectively). Our results were robust to sensitivity analyses.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Monthly prescription drug caps were significantly associated with a reduction in Medicaid-covered MOUD prescriptions. Medicaid enrollees who need MOUD may be affected by indiscriminate prescription drug cap policies, potentially hindering ongoing efforts to mitigate the opioid crisis.”

For more information on this research see: State drug caps associated with fewer Medicaid-covered prescriptions for opioid use disorder, 2017-2022. Health Affairs Scholar, 2024,2(12). The publisher for Health Affairs Scholar is Oxford University Press (OUP).

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/haschl/qxae165.

Our news journalists report that more information may be obtained by contacting Robert J Besaw, Department of Health Policy, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37203, . Additional authors for this research include Carrie E Fry.

ORCID is an identifier for authors and includes bibliographic information. The following is ORCID information for the authors of this research: Robert J Besaw (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0911-0516), Carrie E Fry (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0661-847X).

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