Opioid Fraud Crackdowns Get Help From Data Mining

Newly released opioid prescription and overdose data sets give law enforcement a detailed look into the national crisis and help crack down on opioid fraud and abuse.

States and the federal government are pushing out new tools aggregating data covering everything from opioid overdoses to the level of opioid prescriptions, giving law enforcement the ability to hone in on specific hot spots and prosecute illegal opioid distribution.

A recently released mapping tool from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, for example, lets users view Medicaid opioid prescribing rates down to the zip code level. Law enforcement uses these granular ...