Concerns persist about opioid overdoses and Medicare beneficiaries’ access to treatment and overdose-reversal drugs Data brief (United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Inspector General) United States. Department of Health and Human Services Government Regulation Medicare Part D -- statistics & numerical data Naloxone -- economics Opiate Overdose -- prevention & control Why OIG Did This Review. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its effects on the provision of health care have heightened concerns about opioid use and access to treatment. The pandemic has put people with opioid use disorder at particular risk, as they are at higher risk of developing COVID19 and are more likely to experience hospitalizations or death from the illness. 1 These increased risks posed by COVID-19 make urgent the need to monitor opioid use as well as access to treatment and to the opioid overdose-reversal drug naloxone. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has been tracking opioid use and access to treatment and naloxone in Part D for the past several years. 2 Before 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, there were consistent decreases in opioid use in Part D. There was also growth in the use of medications to treat opioid use disorder—referred to as medication-assisted treatment (MAT) drugs—and naloxone. This data brief provides important information on opioid use, MAT drugs, and naloxone in Medicare Part D in 2020. It builds on a previously released OIG data snapshot about opioid use during the onset of the pandemic. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, August 2021 United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Inspector General. Office of Evaluation and Inspections, issuing body. Technical Report Text Illustrations 1 online resource (1 PDF file (21 pages)) nlm:nlmuid-9918384887006676-pdf 9918384887006676 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918384887006676 English United States The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0