Healio (8/9, Miller) reports, “Laws in 23 states that capped the number of days a Medicare enrollee could receive an initial opioid prescription may have had their intended effect,” investigators concluded. Such laws, “which were implemented between March 2016 and July 2018, limited the duration of first opioid prescriptions to seven days in 17 states, five days in two states and three days in four states.” The study revealed that “the number of days an opioid was prescribed for each Medicare enrollee dropped by a mean of 11.6 days during the five-year period, compared with a drop of 10.1 days in the control states.” The findings were published online Aug. 9 in a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Related Links:
— “Opioid prescription laws provide ‘significant but limited outcome’ “Janel Miller, Healio, August 9, 2021