FAIR Health, a nonprofit healthcare data analytics and consumer education firm, recently used its national database to examine private insurance claims in New York state between 2007 and 2014. What the firm found was a substantial increase in such claims in New York City, the city's suburbs and the rest of the state.
Here are three study findings.
1. FAIR Health found private insurance claim lines with opioid abuse and dependence diagnoses increased during the study time period by 1,459 percent in the New York City suburbs of Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester counties, according to a news release from the firm.
2. From 2007 to 2014, private insurance claim lines with opioid abuse increased 324 percent in New York City, 310 percent in the rest of the state (outside New York City and its suburbs) and 487 percent in the entire state overall.
3. During the study time period, New York City had the lowest share (13 percent) of the statewide total of claim lines for privately insured individuals with diagnoses of opioid abuse and dependence, FAIR Health said. The share was 37 percent for the city's suburbs and 50 percent in the upstate and western parts of the state beyond New York City and its suburbs.
"There may be several reasons why New York City has a disproportionately smaller share of the private insurance claim lines with opioid-related diagnoses. It could be that, at least among the privately insured, the opioid epidemic is having a more severe impact on the rest of the state than on the city. It also could be that, in New York City, a greater share of patients with opioid-related diagnoses are receiving their healthcare under Medicaid than in the rest of the state," FAIR Health wrote in its release.
"And, it could be that in New York City there are a greater number of higher-income individuals who are not using insurance to cover their opioid-related treatment."
Read more about the firm's research here and here.