Racialized and beneficiary inequities in medication to treat opioid use disorder receipt within the US Military Health System.

BACKGROUND: Medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) can be critical to managing opioid use disorder (OUD). It is unknown the extent to which US Military Health System (MHS) patients diagnosed with OUD receive MOUD. METHODS: Healthcare records of MHS-enrolled active duty and retired service members (N = 13,334) with a new (index) OUD diagnosis were included between 2018 and 2021, without 90-day pre-index MOUD receipt were included. Elastic net logistic and Cox regressions evaluated care- and system-level factors associated with 1-year MOUD receipt (primary outcome) and time-to-receipt. RESULTS: Only 9% of patients received MOUD 1-year post-index; only 4% received MOUD within 14 days. Black patients (OR for receipt 0.38, 95% CI 0.30-0.49), Latinx patients (OR for receipt 0.44, 95% CI 0.33-0.59), and patients whose race and ethnicity was Other (OR for receipt 0.52, 95%CI 0.35, 0.77) experienced lower MOUD access (all p < 0.001). Retirees were more likely to receive MOUD relative to active duty service members (OR for receipt 1.81, 95%CI 1.52, 2.16, p <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Institutional racism in MOUD prescribing, combined with the overall low rates of MOUD receipt after OUD diagnosis, highlight the need for evidence-based, multifaceted, and multilevel approaches to OUD care in the Military Health System. Without clear Defense Health Agency policy, including the designation of responsible entities, transparent and ongoing evaluation and responsiveness using standardized methodology, and resourced programming and public health campaigns, MOUD rates will likely remain poor and inequitable.

Naloxone Prescribing Associated With Reduced Emergency Department Visits in the Military Health System.

PURPOSE: The aim was to determine the association between the receipt of naloxone and emergency department (ED) visits within 60 days after the receipt of an opioid. METHODS: A retrospective cohort of individuals 18 years of age or above, enrolled in TRICARE, and were dispensed an opioid at any time from January 1, 2019, through September 30, 2020 was identified within the United States Military Health System. Individuals receiving naloxone within 5 days of the opioid dispensing date were propensity score matched with individuals receiving opioids only. A logistic regression was used to estimate the odds of an ED visit in the 60-day follow-up period after the index opioid dispense event among those co-dispensed naloxone and those receiving opioids only. RESULTS: Of the 2,136,717 individuals who received an opioid prescription during the study period, 800,071 (10.1%) met study inclusion criteria. Overall, 5096 (0.24%) of individuals who received an opioid prescription were co-dispensed naloxone. Following propensity score matching, those who received naloxone had a significantly lower odds of ED utilization in the 60 days after receiving an opioid prescription (odds ratio: 0.74, 95% CI: 0.68-0.80, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study highlights the importance of expanding access to naloxone in order to reduce ED utilization. Future research is needed to examine additional outcomes related to naloxone receipt and develop programs that make naloxone prescribing a routine practice.

Naloxone prescribing practices in the Military Health System before and after policy implementation.

Introduction: Despite public health campaigns, policies, and educational programs, naloxone prescription rates among people receiving opioids remains low. In June 2018, the U.S. Military Health System (MHS) released 2 policies to improve naloxone prescribing. Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine whether the policies resulted in increased naloxone coprescription rates for patients who met the criteria for 1 or more risk indicators (eg, long-term opioid therapy, benzodiazepine coprescription, morphine equivalent daily dose ≥50 mg, and elevated overdose risk score) at the time of opioid dispense. Methods: Prescription and risk indicator data from January 2017 to February 2021 were extracted from the MHS Data Repository. Naloxone coprescription rates from January 2017 to September 2018 were used to forecast prescribing rates from October 2018 to February 2021 overall and across risk indicators. Forecasted rates were compared with actual rates using Bayesian time series analyses. Results: The probability of receiving a naloxone coprescription was higher for patients whose opioid prescriber and pharmacy were both within military treatment facilities vs both within the purchased-care network. Bayesian time series results indicated that the number of patients who met the criteria for any risk indicator decreased throughout the study period. Naloxone prescribing rates increased across the study period from <1% to 20% and did not significantly differ from the forecasted rates across any and each risk indicator (adjusted P values all >0.05). Conclusion: Future analyses are needed to better understand naloxone prescribing practices and the impact of improvements to electronic health records, decision support tools, and policies.