Report: Ohio Insurance Claims for Opioid-Related Cases Spike

Insurance claims for opioid abuse, opioid dependence, heroin overdose and overdose of opioids jumped 770 percent in Ohio from 2007 to 2014, according to an analysis by FAIR Health, a national, independent, nonprofit organization aiming to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information.

Toledo had the largest increase, at 1,022 percent.

The opioid epidemic has hit Ohio hard. According to the state's Department of Health, the number of opioid-related deaths skyrocketed by 775 percent from 2003 to 2015, numbers that include deaths involving prescription opioids, heroin and fentanyl.

FAIR analyzed over 23 billion private healthcare claims and found the following trends:

• The increase for the state was 770 percent for the entire period from 2007 to 2014, but only 171 percent from 2011 to 2014.
• The largest increase occurred with heroin overdose (1,078 percent), followed closely by opioid dependence (947 percent).
• In Cleveland, claim lines with a heroin overdose diagnosis decreased from 2012 to 2014.

The analysis excludes claims made through Medicaid.

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