A Nation in Pain: Focus on Medicaid

This data insight report from pharmacy company Express Scripts uses patient records throughout 2015 to examine the demographic makeup of individuals filling opioid prescriptions, according to a manager of Medicaid health plans. Their analysis explores those in the categories of Aged, Blind, and Disabled-Long Term Care, Children’s Health Insurance Program, Dual Eligibility, and TANF. Those receiving TANF benefits use a higher percentage of their Medicaid plan cost for opiates and have a higher percentage of their prescriptions filled for opiates than all populations on Medicare. Other data points, such as gender, age, and prescription type, are broken down and compared between Medicaid’s general population and the TANF population. Opioid misuse statistics are also included and can be used to better understand the numbers behind the intersection of TANF populations and opioid use.