A new opioid interstate study reports decreases in the amount and frequency of the drug prescribed to injured employees covered by workers’ compensation in several states. However, the Workers Compensation Research Institute’s (WCRI’s) study, Interstate Variations in Use of Opioids, 4th Edition, also found higher opioid use and other patterns of high-risk drug use in other states during the same time period.

The study examined 26 states’ workers’ compensation (WC) systems, which covered more than 430,000 nonsurgical WC claims and about 2.3 million prescriptions connected with those claims. The study also found that New York, Michigan, Kentucky and Maryland had the highest reduction in opioid use among the states with lower average uses by workers injured in 2010 and 2013.

The 26 states included in this study are Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. These states represent over two-thirds of the workers’ compensation benefits paid in the United States.

The WCRI study shows decreases in opioid prescriptions in most of the 26 states it observed. But opioid addiction from pain-killers reportedly has reached epidemic heights.

Between 65% to 75% of injured workers on pain killers had at least one opioid prescription between 2013 to 2015, with the highest incidents in Arkansas (85%), South Carolina (80%) and Louisiana (80%). New York, Pennsylvania and Louisiana had the highest number of opioid claims among the 26 states – though, again, New York did see substantial decreases.

This report serves as a tool to monitor changes in opioid utilization as states implement reforms addressing opioid prescribing and dispensing. Moreover, by comparing variations in the use of opioids across the states, this study can help policymakers and stakeholders be better informed about the level of opioid use in their states and better target future efforts to address issues related to prescription opioids in their states.

But at the same time, more U.S. workers are testing positive for drug use, according to a May 2017 Quest Diagnostics ​study. In fact, addiction to cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines is at a 12-year high, the study shows. Increases in drug addiction could present more misconduct issues for employers and raise treatment costs.

“This year’s findings are remarkable because they show increased rates of drug positivity for the most common illicit drugs across virtually all drug test specimen types and in all testing populations,” said Barry Sample, PhD, senior director, science and technology, Quest Diagnostics Employer Solutions.

The positivity rate in urine testing for cocaine increased for the fourth consecutive year in the general U.S. workforce and for the second consecutive year in the federally-mandated, safety-sensitive workforce. Cocaine positivity increased 12 percent in 2016, reaching a seven-year high of 0.28 percent, compared to 0.25 percent in 2015 in the general U.S. workforce, and seven percent among federally-mandated, safety-sensitive workers to 0.28 percent, compared to 0.26 percent in 2015.