An analysis of ophthalmology subspecialty opioid prescribing patterns during the opioid public health crisis

To describe opioid prescribing practices of ophthalmology subspecialties and determine whether opioid prescribing has decreased during the public health crisis.Retrospective cohort study.Ophthalmologists prescribing at least 11 medications billed to the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.Publicly available Medicare data sets based on claims from the years 2016, 2017, and 2018 were used. Fellowship status was assumed based on subspecialty society membership or use of specified Current Procedural Terminology codes. The main outcome was the percentage of physicians in each subspecialty prescribing opioids.The database included 19,762, 19,790, and 19,840 ophthalmologists in the years 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively. Only the subspecialties of comprehensive ophthalmology (43.5% vs 39.6% vs 35.7%; p0.001; φAll subspecialties experienced either a small reduction or no significant change in the percentage of opioid prescribers during the period analyzed. We hope to encourage collaboration between ophthalmology subspecialties in striving to reduce opioid prescribing. Further studies are needed to better fine-tune opioid prescribing practices.