{"id":19469,"date":"2025-08-01T01:00:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?page_id=19469"},"modified":"2026-01-30T07:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:37:19","slug":"risk-of-continued-opioid-use-cou","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/risk-of-continued-opioid-use-cou\/","title":{"rendered":"Risk of Continued Opioid Use (COU)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The percentage of persons 18 years of age and older who have a new episode of opioid use that puts them at risk for continued opioid use. Two rates are reported:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The percentage of persons with at least 15 days of prescription opioids in a 30-day period.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. The percentage of persons with at least 31 days of prescription opioids in a 62-day period.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Why It Matters<\/h2>\n

    Since 2006, the average days supply for opioid prescriptions has risen 33% (from 13.3 days to 17.7 days in 2015)1<\/a><\/sup>. Literature suggests that an association exists between the duration of initial opioid therapy and continued use2<\/a><\/sup>. Continued opioid use for noncancer pain is associated with increased risk of opioid use disorder (OUD), opioid-related overdose, hospitalization and opioid overdose-related mortality3<\/a><\/sup>. The sharpest increases in the probability of continuing opioid use at 1 and 3 years post-initial-prescription were observed after the 5th and 31st days on therapy4<\/a><\/sup>. To address the association between prescribing practices and risk of continued opioid use and its associated negative outcomes, NCQA identified a measure concept that assesses members with a new episode of opioid use who are dispensed opioids for a period of time that puts them at an increased risk of continued use.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    The intent of this measure is to identify a population that is at risk for opioid overuse and misuse who may benefit from additional monitoring, services or support.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    * Adapted with financial support from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and with permission from the measure developer, Minnesota Department of Human Services.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Historical Results \u2013 National Averages<\/span><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The percentage of persons 18 years of age and older who have a new episode of opioid use that puts them at risk for continued opioid use. Two rates are reported:\u00a0 The percentage of persons with at least 15 days of prescription opioids in a 30-day period.\u00a0 The percentage of persons with at least 31 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":733,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19469","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRisk of Continued Opioid Use (COU) - NCQA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The percentage of persons 18 years of age and older who have a new episode of opioid use that puts them at risk for continued opioid use.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/risk-of-continued-opioid-use-cou\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Risk of Continued Opioid Use (COU) - NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The percentage of persons 18 years of age and older who have a new episode of opioid use that puts them at risk for continued opioid use.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/risk-of-continued-opioid-use-cou\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-30T12:37:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/NCQA_cmyk_tag.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NCQA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/risk-of-continued-opioid-use-cou\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/risk-of-continued-opioid-use-cou\/\",\"name\":\"Risk of Continued Opioid Use (COU) - NCQA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-01T05:00:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-30T12:37:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"The percentage of persons 18 years of age and older who have a new episode of opioid use that puts them at risk for continued opioid use.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/risk-of-continued-opioid-use-cou\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/risk-of-continued-opioid-use-cou\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/risk-of-continued-opioid-use-cou\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Report Cards\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Health Plans\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"State of Health Care Quality Report\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Risk of Continued Opioid Use (COU)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\",\"name\":\"NCQA\",\"description\":\"Measuring quality. 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