OBJECTIVES:

The growing opioid epidemic has a large impact on the burden of overall illicit drug dependence. The use of cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines, and other illicit drugs has been on the rise as well. However, there is little research quantifying the associated health care expenditures of drug dependence overall. This study estimated the total direct healthcare expenditures, insurer and patient out-of-pocket (OOP), of diagnosed drug dependence in the United States (US).

METHODS:

This study used 2012-2015 data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a large, nationally-representative database from the US. This study performed descriptive analyses of the total annual healthcare costs for diagnosed drug dependence. Insurer and patient OOP expenditures were reported at the individual and US aggregate levels. Patients were identified by the International Classification of Disease Codes 9th Revision (ICD-9) code 304.xx. US aggregated estimates were calculated using published prevalence rates of drug dependence.

RESULTS:

The MEPS database included 139 patients with diagnosed drug dependence. The average age was 37.6 (SD=21.38) and 53% were female. For those with diagnosed drug dependence, the total annual direct healthcare expenditures were $3,297. The annual insurer and patient OOP expenditures were $2,828 (86%) and $469 (14%) respectively. The US aggregated total direct healthcare burden of diagnosed drug dependence, adjusted to the 2017 US population, was $15.0 billion ($12.8 billion insurer and $2.1 billion patient OOP).

CONCLUSIONS:

These findings indicate that the total direct healthcare expenditures of drug dependence are considerable. Further, they are likely conservative estimates as the data set does not include information from those in the military, incarcerated, homeless, or other institutionalized groups. These excluded groups may be found to have increased prevalence of drug dependence. Further analysis is necessary to estimate the incremental direct healthcare expenditures of diagnosed drug dependence.