Recent findings may show that medical marijuana not only saves state and federal governments millions on Medicare, but it may help curb prescription drug use too. A new studyreports that in states where medical marijuana is available prescriptions for painkillers has dipped drastically.
There’s been a spate of growing studies on how overdose and painkiller abuse— particularly among chronic pain patients — are lower in medical marijuana states, but the researchers have largely hypothesized that these patients are picking pot over prescription drugs. Now, a recent report in the journal Health Affairs suggests that the link between prescriptions and marijuana is no longer just a hypothesis.
Authored by a University of Georgia research team, the study found that in the 17 states with a medical marijuana law in place by 2013, prescriptions for painkillers and other drugs dropped significantly compared to states that did not legalize medical marijuana. Medical marijuana’s availability in these states, whether it was available to be cultivated at home or at dispensaries, also had a significant effect on Medicare spending. According to the study, Medicare saved approximately $165.2 million in 2013 because of lower prescription drug use.
The declines they discovered in prescription-use were significant. The study says in medical marijuana-approved states, the average doctor prescribed fewer doses of antidepressants, seizure and anti-nausea medication. They also found that doctors prescribed fewer doses of anti-anxiety medication — and a particularly notable reduction of painkillers prescriptions too.
W. David Bradford, a health economist and co-author of the study, as well as a public policy professor, at the University of Georgia, says that about $52 million of the $165.2 million in Medicare savings came from California in 2013. “California is a big state as far as spending goes,” he says. The study’s results suggest that if all states followed California’s lead in legalizing medical marijuana the overall savings to Medicare would be roughly $468 million.
The research’s findings, according to Bradford, started with a simple question: how is marijuana affecting prescription drug use? With his co-author — and daughter — Ashley Bradford, they decided to rake through the public database of all prescription drugs paid for under Medicare Part D — also known as the Medicare prescription benefit — from 2010 to 2013 to find answers. Medicare Part D is funded federally by the government to subsidize prescription drug costs for Medicare participants.
“Four years of Medicare Part D prescriptions gave us a variation across the states,” Bradford says. “We were able to run some statistical models that helped us to identify what the causal effect of what the medical marijuana effects were.” He adds that they ruled out accidental occurrences — or when they spotted outside trends that led to lower prescription or marijuana rates — to isolate marijuana’s impact, rather than simply associate it with prescription use.
http://www.laweekly.com/news/medica...g-prescriptions-and-medicare-spending-7168951
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7e5_1469337622#6m4k86i24HtOjmCJ.99
There’s been a spate of growing studies on how overdose and painkiller abuse— particularly among chronic pain patients — are lower in medical marijuana states, but the researchers have largely hypothesized that these patients are picking pot over prescription drugs. Now, a recent report in the journal Health Affairs suggests that the link between prescriptions and marijuana is no longer just a hypothesis.
Authored by a University of Georgia research team, the study found that in the 17 states with a medical marijuana law in place by 2013, prescriptions for painkillers and other drugs dropped significantly compared to states that did not legalize medical marijuana. Medical marijuana’s availability in these states, whether it was available to be cultivated at home or at dispensaries, also had a significant effect on Medicare spending. According to the study, Medicare saved approximately $165.2 million in 2013 because of lower prescription drug use.
The declines they discovered in prescription-use were significant. The study says in medical marijuana-approved states, the average doctor prescribed fewer doses of antidepressants, seizure and anti-nausea medication. They also found that doctors prescribed fewer doses of anti-anxiety medication — and a particularly notable reduction of painkillers prescriptions too.
W. David Bradford, a health economist and co-author of the study, as well as a public policy professor, at the University of Georgia, says that about $52 million of the $165.2 million in Medicare savings came from California in 2013. “California is a big state as far as spending goes,” he says. The study’s results suggest that if all states followed California’s lead in legalizing medical marijuana the overall savings to Medicare would be roughly $468 million.
The research’s findings, according to Bradford, started with a simple question: how is marijuana affecting prescription drug use? With his co-author — and daughter — Ashley Bradford, they decided to rake through the public database of all prescription drugs paid for under Medicare Part D — also known as the Medicare prescription benefit — from 2010 to 2013 to find answers. Medicare Part D is funded federally by the government to subsidize prescription drug costs for Medicare participants.
“Four years of Medicare Part D prescriptions gave us a variation across the states,” Bradford says. “We were able to run some statistical models that helped us to identify what the causal effect of what the medical marijuana effects were.” He adds that they ruled out accidental occurrences — or when they spotted outside trends that led to lower prescription or marijuana rates — to isolate marijuana’s impact, rather than simply associate it with prescription use.
http://www.laweekly.com/news/medica...g-prescriptions-and-medicare-spending-7168951
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7e5_1469337622#6m4k86i24HtOjmCJ.99
