Editor’s Note: For payers and policy-makers it can be a challenge to design effective opioid epidemic measures to control the rapid increase of overdoses as program effectiveness data is being accumulated. Staying abreast as to how opioid prescription control policies are evaluated for effectiveness, payers can be more efficient in their policy making. Click HERE and discuss how BHM helps track claims data for payers. 

CMS Updates Opioid

CMS Updates Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool to give users a more in-depth look at opioid prescribing rates across the U.S., the agency announced Feb. 22.

Three things to know:

1. CMS launched the tool in 2015, which featured Medicare Part D prescribing rates for 2013.

2. CMS updates opioid tool to contains data on Medicaid opioid prescribing rates, along with an expanded look at Medicare data.

3. In 2016, opioid prescribing rates for Medicaid ranged from 2.9 percent to 9.4 percent and Medicare Part D prescribing rates ranged from 2.9 percent to 7.4 percent.

“Fighting this epidemic and its impact in every state, county and municipality is a priority of the Trump administration, and this mapping tool gives our state and local partners the data they need to build on their own targeted solutions,” Kimberly Brandt, CMS principal deputy administrator for operations, said in a press release.

CMS Updates Opioid Tools

“Leveraging data is one of CMS’s key strategies to help target our prevention and treatment efforts to combat the opioid crisis, especially in rural communities,” said CMS Principal Deputy Administration for Operations Kimberly Brandt. “Fighting this epidemic and its impact in every state, county and municipality is a priority of the Trump Administration, and this mapping tool gives our state and local partners the data they need to build on their own targeted solutions.”

For full access to updated tool. click HERE.

For payers and policy-makers it can be a challenge to design effective opioid epidemic measures to control the rapid increase of overdoses as program effectiveness data is being accumulated. Staying abreast as to how opioid prescription control policies are evaluated for effectiveness, payers can be more efficient in their policy making. Click HERE and discuss how BHM helps track claims data for payers.