Fierce Healthcare February 5, 2021
About 1 in 5 Medicare Part D beneficiaries got an opioid through the drug benefit in the first eight months of last year, declining slightly at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report found.
The report, published last month from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG), details opioid use as the pandemic took hold in March.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened concerns related to opioid misuse and overdose, as well as concerns related to access to treatment,” the report said. “Respiratory diseases, like COVID-19, are known to increase the risk of fatal overdose among people taking opioids.”
The report looked at opioid prescriptions from January through August of 2020. It found that...
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