One In Three Medicare Part D Beneficiaries Receives A Prescription Opioid Each Year

One in three Medicare Part D beneficiaries was prescribed opioids during 2016, equaling 14.4 million of the total approximated 43.6 million beneficiaries. Approximately 500,000 beneficiaries received high amounts of opioids, with a morphine equivalent dose (MED) of greater than 120 mg a day for at least 3 months, which put nearly 90,000 beneficiaries at serious risk due to the amounts of opioids prescribed.

These findings were reported in “Opioids in Medicare Part D:  Concerns about Extreme Use and Questionable Prescribing” by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Health and Human Services . . .