Total Expenses, Total Utilization, and Sources of Payment for Outpatient Prescription Opioids in the U.S. Adult Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2017

Prescription opioids are essential to help manage acute or chronic pain in millions of Americans. However, misuse or abuse of these opioid products which can result in drug dependence, overdose, and mortality, has become a national public health crisis in the past few years. Examining expenses, utilization and financing of prescribed opioids can help inform the efforts to address the crisis. This Statistical Brief examines opioid utilization and expenditures by adults (ages 18 and older) in the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. We present Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC) estimates of total expenses, total fills and sources of payment for all outpatient prescription opioids, as well as the same measures for the top five opioid products ranked by total expenses in 2017 (hydrocodone, oxycodone, tramadol, morphine, and codeine). We include all opioid medications that are commonly used to treat pain but exclude respiratory agents, antitussives, and medicines commonly used in Medication Assisted Treatment. Only prescriptions purchased or obtained in an outpatient setting (retail and mail-order prescribed medicines) are included in these estimates. Prescription medicines administered in an inpatient setting or in a clinic or physician’s office are excluded. All differences between estimates discussed in the text are statistically significant at the 0.05 level. Because of methodological and definitional differences, readers should use caution when comparing MEPS estimates of opioid expenditures and utilization with estimates from other sources. Details on the MEPS methodology and differences with other sources are included in the Definitions section of this Statistical Brief.