This study assessed the impact of Colorado Senate Bill 18-022 limiting opioid prescriptions to a 7-day supply among opioid-naïve patients.
This study found that statutory limits on days’ supply among opioid-naive patients had little impact on opioid prescribing in Colorado. Legislating limits on opioid prescribing should be evaluated using Prescription Drug Monitoring Program data and considered for deimplementation when not impactful. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of Colorado Senate Bill 18-022, which limits opioid prescriptions to ≤7-day supply among patients without an opioid prescription in the previous year (i.e., are opioid naive). To address the ongoing opioid crisis, states use policy enactment to restrict prescribing by licensed healthcare providers and mandate the use of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. There have been mixed results regarding the effectiveness of such state policies. This is a retrospective interrupted time-series analysis of opioid prescribing to evaluate the weekly percentage of opioid prescriptions consistent with statutory limits for ≤7-day supply among opioid-naive patients before and after enactment using Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs data from May 21, 2017, to May 25, 2019. Statistical analysis was performed in 2021–2022. The weekly percentage of opioid prescriptions ≤7-day supply increased by an average of 0.12% per week (p<0.0001) from 79.7% to 87.4% in the week before enactment. The week after enactment, the average increased by 0.2% (p=0.67). The year after enactment, the average weekly percentage change was 0.07% per week, a 0.05% decrease (p=0.01). (Published Abstract Provided)