ABSTRACT
Analyses of health care data can reveal utilization of treatment options that comprise a multidisciplinary approach to chronic pain management. This retrospective cohort study aimed to characterize treatments among commercially versus Medicaid-insured adults with incident episodes of chronic pain. We used MarketScan data to identify patients with diagnoses for conditions associated with chronic pain, assess procedure codes that align with broad categories of treatment options, and compare receipt of treatments by insurance type. Among enrollees aged ≥18 years, 4,254,818 adults with commercial insurance and 583,369 with Medicaid met continuous enrollment criteria and had no chronic pain episodes in 2017. Among patients with incident chronic pain episodes during 2018 to 2020, we determined the proportions receiving different categories of treatment options during the year following diagnosis. Cohen's h determined meaningful differences by insurance. Study cohorts included 1,095,358 commercial (mean [standard deviation] age, 47.3 [13.3] years; 54.3% women) and 176,607 Medicaid adults (38.1 [12.7] years; 70.6% women) with incident chronic pain episodes during 2018 to 2020. More commercial than Medicaid patients received restorative therapies such as physical therapy (38.6% vs 19.2%), complementary or integrative care such as chiropractic treatment (31.1% vs 9.0%), and 2 or more different types of nonmedication treatment procedures (34.1% vs 16.3%). Median days to treatments were shorter for commercial patients. Disparities in the provision, patterns, and timing of treatments by insurance suggest differential access to the full range of treatment options early during the course of care and identify opportunities to align coverage and reimbursement policies with current practice guidelines. PERSPECTIVE: This analysis of medical claims for patients with incident chronic pain episodes found disparities in the provision, patterns, and timing of treatments by insurance type. These results suggest differential access to evidence-based treatment options early during care and identify opportunities to align coverage and reimbursement policies with current practice guidelines.
ABSTRACT
Prescription stimulant use, primarily for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has increased among adults in the United States during recent decades, while remaining stable or declining among children and adolescents (1,2). MarketScan commercial claims data were analyzed to describe trends in prescription stimulant fills before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2016-2021) by calculating annual percentages of enrollees aged 5-64 years in employer-sponsored health plans who had one or more prescription stimulant fills overall and by sex and age group. Overall, the percentage of enrollees with one or more prescription stimulant fills increased from 3.6% in 2016 to 4.1% in 2021. The percentages of females aged 15-44 years and males aged 25-44 years with prescription stimulant fills increased by more than 10% during 2020-2021. Future evaluation could determine if policy and health system reimbursement changes enacted during the pandemic contributed to the increase in stimulant prescriptions. Stimulants can offer substantial benefits for persons with ADHD, but also pose potential harms, including adverse effects, medication interactions, diversion and misuse, and overdoses. Well-established clinical guidelines exist for ADHD care, but only for children and adolescents* (3); clinical practice guidelines for adult ADHD could help adults also receive accurate diagnoses and appropriate treatment.