Incremental expenditures attributable to daily dispensation and witnessed ingestion for opioid agonist treatment in British Columbia: 2014-2020

Original research
par
Nosyk, Bohdan et al

Date de publication

2023

Géographie

Canada

Langue de la ressource

English

Texte disponible en version intégrale

Oui

Open Access / OK to Reproduce

Oui

Évalué par des pairs

Yes

L’objectif

While daily witnessed opioid agonist treatment (OAT) ingestion is common in British Columbia (BC), Canada, and elsewhere, sparse evidence supports this resource-intensive practice. Many settings across North America relaxed restrictions for take-home dosing during the COVID-19 pandemic and have reported consistent or improved patient outcomes. This study measured excess expenditures attributed to daily witnessed pharmacy dispensing compared with weekly or biweekly dispensation schedules.

Constatations/points à retenir

Daily witnessed opioid agonist treatment ingestion results in over $30 million in excess expenditures annually in the province of British Columbia, Canada compared with the costs of weekly or biweekly dispensation schedules.

La conception ou méthodologie de recherche

Population-level retrospective analysis. A total of 24,357,107 OAT dispensations among 51,195 unique individuals with 122,793 person-years of follow-up were included during the study period.

Mots clés

Policy/Regulatory
Advocacy