Health Affairs September 1, 2025
Abstract
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regularly assesses the quality of opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment received by Medicaid beneficiaries. However, to date, there has been no comprehensive assessment of Medicare OUD treatment. In 2022, 1.9 million Medicare beneficiaries had OUD, and from 2022 to 2023, adults ages sixty-five and older experienced the largest increase in drug overdose of any age group. Using Medicare enrollment, claims, and encounter data, we assessed the extent to which Medicare beneficiaries with OUD received treatment in accordance with eight nationally recognized quality measures in 2020. We found that fewer than 40 percent of Medicare beneficiaries with OUD received care in alignment with OUD quality measures. Medicare Advantage performed worse than fee-for-service Medicare...
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