As the U.S. grapples with an ongoing opioid crisis, a new federal government report finds that efforts to rethink physician prescribing practices and provide treatments for people who have abused opioids appear to be working.
In 2018, nearly 3 in 10 beneficiaries received at least one prescription opioid through Medicare Part D. Specifically, 29% of beneficiaries, or 13.4 million of the 46.8 million people enrolled in the program, received opioids. This was a drop from the previous year, when 31% of beneficiaries received opioids through Part D, and from 2016, when 33% received the painkillers.
At the same time, the number of beneficiaries who receive medication-assisted treatment — which refers to providing medicines to combat opioid use disorder — has steadily increased and reached 174,000 in 2018. In addition, the number of Part D beneficiaries receiving prescriptions for naloxone, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, more than doubled last year.
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