research
Responding to the Prescription Opioid Crisis
Opioid misuse is a significant public health crisis in the United States which disproportionately affects poor and disabled Americans and impacts the parts of the health care system serving those populations—largely financed through the Medicaid program. ACAP-member Safety Net Health Plans have a long history of working with low-income, vulnerable populations and are now on the front lines, creating multi-faceted, comprehensive solutions to prevent and treat opioid overuse and misuse.
This qualitative analysis builds on ACAP’s 2015 report, Strategies to Reduce Prescription Drug Abuse: Lessons Learned from the ACAP SUD Collaborative, and takes a more detailed look at innovations and best practices being developed by five ACAP-member plans: Partnership HealthPlan of California (PHC), Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP), Community Health Plan of Washington (CHPW), Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island (Neighborhood), and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) for You Health Plan. Its aim is twofold—to explain the role of Medicaid managed care plans in addressing a public health crisis, such as the opioid epidemic, and to serve as a resource to other health plans, providers, and stakeholders looking for best practices in addressing opioid overuse and misuse.