“Medicaid spending on three important medications used to treat opioid addiction increased 136 percent nationwide between 2011 and 2016, according to a new report from the Urban Institute, a public policy think tank based in Washington D.C. The increases were much higher in some states—in seven states, rates rose more than 400 percent.
The authors of the report draw a parallel between the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion and spending on buprenorphine, naltrexone and the overdose antidote naloxone, saying it has brought addiction treatment to previously underserved populations.
“What we saw was this gigantic, rapid, ongoing expansion in treatment,” says report co-author Lisa Clemans-Cope. “It was particularly fast after 2014 when the big Medicaid expansion came into play. There’s definitely an effect of people getting access to treatment—that’s the primary driver of growth of spending.”
Read more at: http://wboi.org/post/spending-opioid-addiction-medications-rose-sharply-2011#stream/0 Spending on Opioid Addiction Medications Rose Sharply Since 2011 – 7/3/17
The report can be accessed at: http://www.urban.org/research/publication/rapid-growth-medicaid-spending-medications-treat-opioid-use-disorder-and-overdose
Source: WBOI.org – July 3, 2017
