Opioid and Opioid Use Disorder Final Environmental Scan 

Since 1999 approximately 800,000 U.S. persons have died prematurely from drug or alcohol overdoses, and more than half of these deaths have involved opioids. This makes annual overdose deaths more lethal than U.S. fatalities related to guns, the Vietnam War, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and automobile fatalities, underscoring the deadly impact of this epidemic. NQF staff completed an environmental scan to assess the current state of opioid-related healthcare quality measures. This environmental scan report identifies 207 performance measures and 71 measure concepts. Information was synthesized from peer-reviewed scientific literature, grey scientific literature, quality measurement databases, state laws responding to the opioid crisis, and informant interviews including experts and other stakeholders in this field of quality measurement, health services research, and addiction. The technical expert panel will use the results of the scan as a foundation to develop guidance for inclusion of measures in various federal accountability programs to best address the U.S. opioid epidemic.