IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jhecon/v70y2020ics0167629619304758.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effects of medicare advantage on opioid use

Author

Listed:
  • Baker, Laurence C.
  • Bundorf, M. Kate
  • Kessler, Daniel P.

Abstract

Despite a vast literature on the determinants of prescription opioid use, the role of health insurance plans has received little attention. We study how the form of Medicare beneficiaries’ drug coverage affects the volume of opioids they consume. We find that enrollment in Medicare Advantage, which integrates drug coverage with other medical benefits, significantly reduces beneficiaries’ likelihood of filling an opioid prescription, as compared to enrollment in a stand-alone drug plan. Approximately half of this effect was due to fewer fills from prescribers who write a very large number of opioid prescriptions.

Suggested Citation

  • Baker, Laurence C. & Bundorf, M. Kate & Kessler, Daniel P., 2020. "The effects of medicare advantage on opioid use," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:70:y:2020:i:c:s0167629619304758
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.102278
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629619304758
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.102278?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Molly Schnell & Janet Currie, 2018. "Addressing the Opioid Epidemic: Is There a Role for Physician Education?," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages 383-410, Summer.
    2. Powell, David & Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo & Taylor, Erin, 2020. "How increasing medical access to opioids contributes to the opioid epidemic: Evidence from Medicare Part D," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    3. Dasgupta, N. & Beletsky, L. & Ciccarone, D., 2018. "Opioid Crisis: No Easy Fix to Its Social and Economic Determinants," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 108(2), pages 182-186.
    4. Duggan, Mark & Starc, Amanda & Vabson, Boris, 2016. "Who benefits when the government pays more? Pass-through in the Medicare Advantage program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 50-67.
    5. Baker, Laurence C., 1997. "The effect of HMOs on fee-for-service health care expenditures: Evidence from Medicare," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 453-481, August.
    6. Chernew, Michael & DeCicca, Philip & Town, Robert, 2008. "Managed care and medical expenditures of Medicare beneficiaries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1451-1461, December.
    7. Thomas C. Buchmueller & Colleen Carey, 2018. "The Effect of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs on Opioid Utilization in Medicare," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 77-112, February.
    8. Christopher C. Afendulis & Michael E. Chernew & Daniel P. Kessler, 2017. "The Effect of Medicare Advantage on Hospital Admissions and Mortality," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(2), pages 254-279, Spring.
    9. Marika Cabral & Michael Geruso & Neale Mahoney, 2018. "Do Larger Health Insurance Subsidies Benefit Patients or Producers? Evidence from Medicare Advantage," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(8), pages 2048-2087, August.
    10. Christopher C. Afendulis & Michael E. Chernew & Daniel P. Kessler, 2017. "The Effect of Medicare Advantage on Hospital Admissions and Mortality," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 3(2), pages 254-279, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shishir Shakya & Collin Hodges, 2023. "Must‐access prescription drug monitoring programs and retail opioid sales," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(1), pages 146-165, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aliprantis, Dionissi & Fee, Kyle & Schweitzer, Mark E., 2023. "Opioids and the labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    2. Laurence C. Baker & Kate Bundorf & Daniel Kessler, 2018. "The Effects of Medicare Advantage on Opioid Use," NBER Working Papers 25327, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Shishir Shakya & Collin Hodges, 2023. "Must‐access prescription drug monitoring programs and retail opioid sales," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(1), pages 146-165, January.
    4. Amy Finkelstein & Matthew Gentzkow & Dean Li & Heidi L. Williams, 2022. "What Drives Risky Prescription Opioid Use? Evidence from Migration," NBER Working Papers 30471, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Cornelius A. Rietveld & Pankaj C. Patel, 2021. "Prescription opioids and new business establishments," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1175-1199, October.
    6. Yevgeniy Feyman & Steven D. Pizer & Austin B. Frakt, 2021. "The persistence of medicare advantage spillovers in the post‐Affordable Care Act era," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 311-327, February.
    7. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Justine Mallatt & Christopher J. Ruhm & Kosali Simon, 2022. "The Opioid Crisis, Health, Healthcare, and Crime: A Review of Quasi-Experimental Economic Studies," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 703(1), pages 15-49, September.
    8. Janssen, Aljoscha & Zhang, Xuan, 2020. "Retail Pharmacies and Drug Diversion during the Opioid Epidemic," Working Paper Series 1373, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    9. Cornelius A. Rietveld & Pankaj C. Patel, 0. "Prescription opioids and new business establishments," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-25.
    10. Ahomäki, Iiro & Pitkänen, Visa & Soppi, Aarni & Saastamoinen, Leena, 2020. "Impact of a physician-targeted letter on opioid prescribing," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    11. David Beheshti, 2019. "Adverse health effects of abuse‐deterrent opioids: Evidence from the reformulation of OxyContin," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(12), pages 1449-1461, December.
    12. Daniele, Gianmarco & Le Moglie, Marco & Masera, Federico, 2023. "Pains, guns and moves: The effect of the U.S. opioid epidemic on Mexican migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    13. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2018. "Deaths of Despair or Drug Problems?," NBER Working Papers 24188, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Mayank Aggarwal & Anindya S. Chakrabarti & Chirantan Chatterjee, 2023. "Movies, stigma and choice: Evidence from the pharmaceutical industry," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 1019-1039, May.
    15. Michael Geruso & Timothy Layton, 2020. "Upcoding: Evidence from Medicare on Squishy Risk Adjustment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(3), pages 984-1026.
    16. Michele Fioretti & Hongming Wang, 2020. "Performance Pay in Insurance Markets: Evidence from Medicare," Working Papers 2020.03, International Network for Economic Research - INFER.
    17. David Dranove & Christopher Ody & Amanda Starc, 2021. "A Dose of Managed Care: Controlling Drug Spending in Medicaid," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 170-197, January.
    18. Simone Balestra & Helge Liebert & Nicole Maestas & Tisamarie B. Sherry, 2021. "Behavioral Responses to Supply-Side Drug Policy During the Opioid Epidemic," NBER Working Papers 29596, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Kurt Lavetti & Kosali Simon, 2018. "Strategic Formulary Design in Medicare Part D Plans," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 154-192, August.
    20. Haizhen Lin & Ian M. McCarthy, 2023. "Multimarket Contact in Health Insurance: Evidence from Medicare Advantage," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 212-255, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Medicare advantage; Opioid use;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:70:y:2020:i:c:s0167629619304758. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505560 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.