Avalere Health report: Opioid epidemic costs $1T per year, but there’s hope

Costs related to opioid use disorder (OUD) can reach nearly $1 trillion per year when factoring in health insurance and uninsured costs, substance use treatment, lost productivity at both work and home and criminal justice.

That estimate is from a secondary research report by Avalere Health , a strategic health care partner that works through advisory, medical, and marketing teams to ensure support, treatment and overall care for every patient. The report found total annual costs related to OUD to be $934 billion nationwide, with most of that, $438 billion, coming from lost employer productivity, followed by employee productivity, at $248 billion.

OUD costs $111 billion annually in health insurance and uninsured costs, as well as $73 billion in lost household productivity. Oth