Watchdog Says Sound Opioid Payments Could Save Medicare Millions

The Medicare program paid millions more for opioid use treatments than the services would have cost if a better process had been used to calculate payment rates, federal watchdogs say.

An audit posted Tuesday by the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found that Medicare could have saved over $300 million if the program had developed a model for its bundled payments that more accurately reflected the price of opioid use disorder treatments.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services currently makes bundled payments to providers that combines payments for the two components of treatment ...