Investigating the complexity of naloxone distribution: Which policies matter for pharmacies and potential recipients

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Health Econ
• Personal Author:
  Smart, Rosanna ; Powell, David ; Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo ; Peet, Evan ; Abouk, Rahi ; Davis, Corey S.
• Description:
  Despite efforts to expand naloxone access, opioid-related overdoses remain a significant contributor to mortality. We study state efforts to expand naloxone distribution through pharmacies by reducing the non-monetary costs to prescribers, dispensers, and/or potential recipients of naloxone. We find that laws that only address liability costs have small and insignificant effects on the volume of naloxone dispensed through pharmacies. In contrast, we estimate large effects of laws removing the need for patients to obtain prescriptions from traditional prescribers (e.g., primary care physicians): laws authorizing non-patient-specific prescription distribution and laws granting pharmacists prescriptive authority. We test whether areas designated as primary care shortage areas-where it would be costlier to obtain a prescription-were disproportionately impacted. Shortage areas experienced sharper growth in pharmacy naloxone dispensing in states adopting prescriptive authority policies. These gains were primarily due to those facing low out-of-pocket costs, suggesting that price barriers also must be addressed to increase naloxone purchases.
• Subjects:
  • Naloxone
  • Humans
  • Narcotic Antagonists
  • United States
  • Pharmacies
  • Health Policy
• Keywords:
  • Opioid crisis
  • Naloxone
  • Pharmacy distribution
  • Prescriptive authority
  • Harm reduction
  • H75
  • I18
  • K32
• Source:
  J Health Econ. 97:102917
• Pubmed ID:
  39043099
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11392605
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  P50 DA046351/DA/NIDA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 CE002999/CE/NCIPC CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R21 DA045950/DA/NIDA NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  97
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/162403/cdc_162403_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.33 MB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c85cacc3c6c310796967bab912f6c74891740293347ee4485b8f1830d818ec76c491e5cff645f997a8077e882edace90ae1f0b0e58130074676abe0e4ff772ce