Jeffery, Molly Moore

Objective To identify the relationships between county-level area deprivation and patterns of both opioid prescriptions and drug-poisoning mortality. Design, setting and participants For this retrospective cross-sectional study, we used the IQVIA Xponent data to capture opioid prescriptions and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention National Vital Statistics System to assess drug-poisoning mortality. The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) is a composite measure of social determinants of health comprised of 17 US census indicators, spanning four socioeconomic domains. For all US counties with available opioid prescription (2712 counties) and drug-poisoning mortality (3133 counties) data between 2012 and 2017, we used negative binomial regression to examine the association between quintiles of county-level ADI and the rates of opioid prescriptions and drug-poisoning mortality adjusted for year, age, race and sex. Primary outcome measures County-level opioid prescription fills and drug-poisoning mortality. Results Between 2012 and 2017, overall rates of opioid prescriptions decreased from 96.6 to 72.2 per 100 people, while the rates of drug-poisoning mortality increased from 14.3 to 22.8 per 100 000 people. Opioid prescription and drug-poisoning mortality rates were consistently higher with greater levels of deprivation. The risk of filling an opioid prescription was 72% higher, and the risk of drug-poisoning mortality was 36% higher, for most deprived compared with the least deprived counties (both p<0.001). Discussion Counties with greater area-level deprivation have higher rates of filled opioid prescriptions and drug-poisoning mortality. Although opioid prescription rates declined across all ADI quintiles, the rates of drug-poisoning mortality continued to rise proportionately in each ADI quintile. This underscores the need for individualised and targeted interventions that consider the deprivation of communities where people live.

Elderly seasonal migrators share time between homes in different states, presenting challenges for care coordination and patient attribution methods. Medicare has prioritized alternative payment models, putting health care providers at risk for quality and value of services delivered to their attributed patients, regardless of the location of care. Little research is available to guide providers and payers on the service use of seasonal migrators. The authors use claims data on fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare beneficiaries' locations throughout the year to (1) identify seasonal migrators and (2) describe the care they receive in each seasonal home, focusing on primary care and emergency department (ED) visits and the relationships between the two. In all, 5.5% of the Medicare aged FFS population were identified as seasonal migrators, with 4.1% following the traditional snowbird pattern of migration, spending warm months in the north and cold months in the south. Migrators had higher rates of ED visits and primary care treatable (PCT) ED visits than the nonmigratory groups, controlling for location, age, race, sex, Medicaid status, season, and comorbidities. They also had more visits with specialist physicians, more days with outpatient services, and more days seeing a physician in any setting. Having local primary care strongly reduced rates of both PCT ED visits and total ED visits for all migration categories, with the greatest reduction seen in PCT ED visits by migrators (local primary care was associated with a 58% reduction in PCT ED visits by snowbirds and a 65% reduction in PCT ED visits by other migrators).