Do Policies to Increase Access to Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder Work?

As of 2016 there were an estimated 2.1 million Americans suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD). To date, most policy interventions have focused on curbing opioid prescriptions and extending insurance coverage to include substance use disorder. However, relatively little is known about treatment rates and outcomes conditional on coverage—particularly in the privately-insured population. We study treatment, spending, and outcomes for a large sample of commercially-insured patients with OUD during the period 2008-2017. The panel nature of the data enables us to identify newly-diagnosed patients and to study their utilization of services before and after their diagnoses.