BACKGROUND The opioid epidemic has severely impacted the US over the last 15 years. Buprenorphine is a partial opioid agonist indicated for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) and is recognized as an effective treatment when taken as prescribed. However, adherence rates have been low in real-world settings. Blister-packaging has been shown to promote medication adherence across a variety of disease states, although it has never been studied in OUD.

METHODS An economic analysis was conducted to assess the impact of increased adherence of blister-packaged buprenorphine on health care resource utilization (HCRU) and health care costs for 10,000 patients initiating therapy for OUD. The model analyzed a commercially insured population within the US over a one-year time horizon. Medication adherence was defined in the model as proportion of days covered (PDC) of at least 80%. Literature-based references were used to inform both the impact of blister-packaging on the number of patients who became adherent as well as the impact of medication adherence on HCRU and health care costs. Model input uncertainty was assessed in one-way sensitivity analyses.

RESULTS With the implementation of blister-packaging buprenorphine, adherence rates increased from 37.1% of patients in the pre-intervention period to 45.3%, resulting in an additional 818 patients becoming adherent post-intervention. The increase in adherence led to a reduction of medical costs of $12,138,757 (-$1,214 per-patient (PP)). Specifically, inpatient costs decreased by $7,127,073 (-$713 PP) while outpatient costs decreased by $5,013,319 (-$501 PP). Pharmacy costs increased by $3,432,705 ($343 PP). Despite the increase in pharmacy costs, total health care costs saw a reduction of $8,559,684 (-$856 PP).

CONCLUSION Blister-packaging buprenorphine for treatment of OUD has potential to improve medication adherence and health outcomes while reducing HCRU and health care costs. Future studies are necessary to assess the real-world application and impact of blister-packaging buprenorphine for OUD across various patient populations and health care settings.