Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features Enlyte’s release of the third portion of its 2021 Mitchell Pharmacy Solutions Drug Trends Series Report, which examines trends within the Opioid drug category.
Key findings included that opioids continue to represent a decreasing proportion of overall scripts and costs – opioid scripts dropped 1.3%, and costs were down 3.2% from 2020. The number of injured workers using opioids has continued to decline as well, decreasing from 33.3% of all injured workers in 2020 to 30.3% in 2021. Trends in morphine equivalent dose (MED) were also favorable, with more than half of the top 20 states ranked by opioid script volume seeing decreases in High MED metrics (scripts w/daily MED of 90 mg or above) in 2021.