Overdose deaths are twice as high in Medicaid beneficiaries compared to all U.S. residents.
That’s according to new research published in JAMA, which found the overdose rate for Medicaid beneficiaries was 54.6 per 100,000, nearly double the overall U.S. population rate of 27.9 per 100,000.
The overdose death rate was consistently higher for Medicaid beneficiaries over 15 years old across ages, compared to the overall U.S. population, with the highest difference between adults aged 45 to 64 years old.
Overdose deaths disproportionately impact Medicaid beneficiaries. While Medicaid beneficiaries only make up 25% of the U.S. population, they make up 48% of all overdose deaths, according to the study.
“The results of this study suggest that there is an urgent need to reduce drug overdose deaths among Medicaid beneficiaries,” authors of the study wrote. “Although Congress, federal agencies, and states expanded Medicaid coverage of substance use disorder treatment, coverage gaps remain.”
Researchers used Medicaid beneficiary enrollment and demographic data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2016 to 2020. The overdose death rate rose among Medicaid beneficiaries from 2016 to 2020 by 54.2%.
“Medicaid laws and regulations largely only allow reimbursement for health care services delivered by Medicaid-participating health professionals to individual Medicaid beneficiaries,” authors of the study wrote. “Thus, population-based harm reduction and primary prevention interventions, such as the distribution of fentanyl test strips and social marketing campaigns warning about the risk of fentanyl in the illicit drug supply, can only be paid for by more limited state and federal discretionary funding.”
Researchers go on to suggest harm-reduction and prevention programs could help this issue in the future.
