A new study from the California Workers’ Comp Institute (CWCI) says that the prevalence of opioids in the state’s workers’ comp lost-time claims has dropped by 51 percent over the past ten years, reducing average benefit payments and average days away from work. That means the ten-year costs on 2010 through 2017 claims are projected to decline.

https://www.cwci.org/document.php?file=4430.pdf

The study, “The Impact of Declining Opioid Use on Lost-Time Claim Development & Outcomes in California Workers’ Compensation” looked at 273,106 lost-time claims in which treatment was initiated within the ten-year period between 2008 and 2017, with payment and prescription data on the claims valued through 2018. They found that during the time of the study, chronic opioid use declined from 13 percent to 3 percent of lost-time claims and acute use declined from 36 percent to just over 21 percent of the claims. The study also showed the strength of the opioids dispensed within the first 12 months declined 59 percent for chronic opioid use claims and 36 percent for acute opioid use claims.

Authors of the study used regression models to estimate the impact of opioid use versus non-use on benefit costs per claim, and applying those estimates against the decline in opioids, projected savings of 16.5 percent for 2017 claims after 10 years development, with cumulative savings of $6.5 billion for 2010 to 2017 claims.

The workers’ comp industry has responded to the opioid crisis with various policy and medical management interventions, including increased applications of evidence-based medicine treatment and pain management guidelines, drug formularies, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), and targeted law enforcement against “pill mills”. These actions have helped the decline in opioid use in California and in other jurisdictions, but future declines may depend on advances in evidence-based medicine research and increasing awareness about the dangers of opioid use, among other things.

Read the full report here and the press release from CWCI.