Opioid Operators: How Surgeons Ply Patients With Painkillers

Even as awareness of the opioid crisis grew, prescribing habits of surgeons changed very little from 2011 to 2016, found a data analysis by Kaiser Health News and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Our team looked at surgeons whose Medicare patients filled a prescription for opioids within a week of having one of seven common surgical procedures. These averages may not reflect current prescribing practices. (See the methodology for more information.)

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<h1>Opioid Operators: How Surgeons Ply Patients With Painkillers</h1>
<div>	<span class="byline">Elizabeth Lucas, KFF Health News</span>
		<time class="posted-on" datetime="2019-06-20T17:15:59-04:00">
			June 20, 2019		</time>
		</div>
<p>Even as awareness of the opioid crisis grew, prescribing habits of surgeons changed very little from 2011 to 2016, found a data analysis by Kaiser Health News and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Our team looked at surgeons whose Medicare patients filled a prescription for opioids within a week of having one of seven common surgical procedures. These averages may not reflect current prescribing practices. (See <a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/opioid-operators-methodology/">the methodology</a> for more information.)</p><ul><li><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/opioid-prescribing/?share=x">				Click to share on X (Opens in new window)				X			</a></li><li><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/opioid-prescribing/?share=facebook">				Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)				Facebook			</a></li><li><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/opioid-prescribing/?share=linkedin">				Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)				LinkedIn			</a></li><li><a href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Opioid%20Operators%3A%20How%20Surgeons%20Ply%20Patients%20With%20Painkillers&body=https%3A%2F%2Fkffhealthnews.org%2FOTYzMzUw&share=email">				Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)				Email			</a></li><li><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/opioid-prescribing/#print?share=print">				Click to print (Opens in new window)				Print			</a></li><li>				<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/opioid-prescribing/view/republish/">					Republish This Story				</a>			</li></ul><em><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about <a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.</em><p><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/morning-briefing/">Subscribe</a> to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.</p><p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/opioid-prescribing/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://kffhealthnews.org">KFF Health News</a> and is republished here under a <a target="_blank" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src="https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/kffhealthnews-icon.png?w=150" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"></p>
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