The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is not doing enough to oversee the prescribing of opioids to Medicare beneficiaries.

Or so concludes the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

According to the GAO, CMS provides guidance to Medicare drug plans “…but does not analyze data specifically on opioids.”  Also, according to the GAO,

…CMS does not identify providers who may be inappropriately prescribing large amounts of opioids separately from other drugs, and does not require plan sponsors to report actions they take when they identify such providers.  As a result, CMS is lacking information that it could use to assess how opioid prescribing patterns are changing over time, and whether its efforts to reduce harm are effective.

To address these and other problems, the GAO report recommends that CMS

• gather information on the full number of at-risk beneficiaries receiving high doses of opioids
• identify providers who prescribe high amounts of opioids
• require plan sponsors to report to CMS on actions related to providers who inappropriately prescribe opioids

Learn more in report Prescription Opioids:  Medicare Needs to Expand Oversight Efforts to Reduce the Risk of Harm, which can be found here, on the GAO web site.