The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California (WCIRB) has released its Early Indicators of High-Risk Opioid Use and Potential Alternative Treatments study report. The study compares characteristics of claims involving high levels of opioid use to claims with similar injury mix and injured worker age that involved only a lower dose of opioids.

Since 2012, the use of opioids has significantly and continuously declined in the California workers’ compensation system. The share of claims with at least one opioid prescription 12 months after the injury decreased from 42% of all claims that had any drug prescription in the same time frame in 2013 to 20% in 2017. In 2017, the average cost of opioid prescriptions per 100 claims was down by almost 80% from 2013. The precipitous reduction in opioid prescriptions has contributed to a lower level of overall pharmaceutical use in the workers’ compensation system.

The downward trend of opioid prescriptions may be leading to a shift in the patterns of medical treatments for California’s injured workers. This potential shift could also result in more utilization of alternative measures in place of high levels of opioid use. Therefore, early identification of injured workers who may be using high doses of opioids and thus experiencing more adverse effects of opioids could facilitate early provision of alternative treatments and also help identify key system cost drivers.

— About 2.5 percent of all Accident Year 2013 (AY2013) claims with any opioid prescription involved high-risk opioid use within 12 months of the date of the injury compared with 1.4 percent of AY2016 claims.
— High-risk opioid use claims incurred significantly higher medical and indemnity costs than similar lower-dose use claims, and they tended to remain open longer.
— High-risk opioid use claims were much more likely to involve permanent disability benefits than similar lower-dose claims.
— During the first six months of treatment, the number of opioid prescriptions per AY2013 claim was 50 percent lower on lower-dose use claims compared to the similar high-risk claims, contributing to 50 percent lower total drug payments per claim.
— Early indicators of high-risk opioid use include obtaining similar opioids from multiple dispensers, having overlapping opioid prescriptions, using extended-release/long-acting opioids and concurrently using opioids and benzodiazepines.
— Physical therapy, acupuncture and chiropractic services – as well as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and non-narcotics – were used significantly more on similar lower-dose use claims than on high-risk use claims.

The full study report is available in the Research section of the WCIRB website.