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Association between Insurance Cost-sharing Subsidy and Postoperative Opioid Prescription Refills among Medicare Patients

  • 6% of Medicare patients in Michigan who underwent orthopedic procedures filled an opioid prescription after the procedure, and 66.4% of patients who filled a prescription refilled another opioid prescription within 90 days of discharge.
  • Among patients with full low-income subsidy, the odds of filling an initial postoperative prescription were 1.29 times higher, and the odds of refilling another prescription were 1.39 times higher than patients without low-income subsidy.


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Kirsch M, Montgomery JR, Hu HM, et al. Association between insurance cost-sharing subsidy and postoperative opioid prescription refills among Medicare patients. Surgery. 2020;168(2):244-252. doi:10.1016/j.surg.2020.04.013