AHRQ Finds Increase in Hospitalizations Due to Opioid Overuse

The rate of hospitalizations for overuse of pain medications has increased more than 150 percent since 1993, according to a new statistical brief from AHRQ. The brief’s authors examined data from AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) and found that the rate of hospital stays involving opioid (pain medication) overuse among adults increased from 116.7 to 295.6 stays per 100,000 population from 1993 to 2012. The authors found that hospitalization rates were climbing among every adult age group and in every region of the country, making the problem more uniformly widespread than has previously been observed. The most significant increases in rates were among women, people living in the Midwest, and among people 45 and older. The data also show that in 1993, Medicaid was billed for more than twice as many hospitalizations involving opioid overuse as any other payer, but by 2012 these differences diminished, and the largest increase was seen for discharges billed to Medicare. Authors of the brief, “Hospital Inpatient Utilization Related to Opioid Overuse Among Adults, 1993–2012,” are Pamela L. Owens, Ph.D., Raynard E. Washington, Ph.D., and Richard Kronick, Ph.D., from AHRQ; Marguerite L. Barrett, M.S., from M.L. Barrett Inc.; and Audrey J. Weiss, Ph.D., from Truven Health Analytics

Highlights

The rate of hospital stays involving opioid overuse among adults increased more than 150 percent between 1993 and 2012. By 2012, there were 709,500 total opioid-related hospital stays representing a rate of 295.6 stays per 100,000 population.

In 1993, the national rate of hospital stays involving opioid overuse among adults was 116.7 per 100,000 population, with the highest rates in select subgroups: men (144.0 per 100,000 population), people aged 25-44 years (188.6 per 100,000 population), and people living in the Northeast (264.0 per 100,000 population).

By 2012, hospital stays involving opioid overuse had increased by approximately 150 percent, with the largest rates of increase among subgroups with relatively lower rates in 1993 (women, people aged 85 years and older, and people living in the Midwest).

In 2012, rates for various age groups were much more similar, the Northeast was no longer a notable outlier, and rates for men and women were nearly equal.

Medicaid had the largest proportion of stays involving opioid overuse (43 percent) in 1993, but Medicare had the largest annual increase over time. By 2012, Medicaid and Medicare each were billed about one-third of all opioid-related stays.