Update on Oversight of Opioid Prescribing and Monitoring of Opioid Use: States Have Taken Action To Address the Opioid Epidemic

We identified actions that selected States took related to their oversight of opioid prescribing and their monitoring of opioid use. In July 2019, we issued a report summarizing and comparing information provided by eight selected States: Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington State, and West Virginia. For this update to our original audit, we selected an additional three States in the Appalachian region, an area with high rates of opioid overdose deaths: Alabama, Kentucky, and Ohio. This report summarizes and compares information provided by all 11 States as of various dates between October 2018 and May 2020.

The selected States have created policies and procedures and passed laws and regulations related to opioids. The States are using opioid-related data to perform data analytics, as well as performing outreach to providers and patients. The States have implemented a number of opioid-related prevention, detection, and treatment programs. Finally, the States have taken many other actions to address the opioid epidemic.

Because this report contains no recommendations, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services did not provide written comments on our draft report but did provide technical comments, which we addressed as appropriate.