June 9, 2017
Hospitalizations for Endocarditis and Associated Health Care Costs Among Persons with Diagnosed Drug Dependence — North Carolina, 2010–2015
Cobey Culton
Office of Communications
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
Office: 919-855-4840
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Hospitalizations for Endocarditis and Associated Health Care Costs Among Persons with Diagnosed Drug Dependence — North Carolina, 2010–2015
Endocarditis is one of many serious and expensive outcomes of the ongoing opioid epidemic. Harm reduction strategies such as syringe service programs, safe injection education, and treatment programs will be critical to reducing these outcomes and their costs. The incidence of endocarditis is increasing rapidly, particularly among injection drug users who are younger, white, non-Hispanic, and from rural areas. Among patients hospitalized for endocarditis, 42 percent were uninsured or had Medicaid coverage, suggesting that the health care system and public payers are sharing a large proportion of the costs. In the context of the opioid epidemic, these findings suggest a need to focus efforts on harm reduction strategies such as syringe service programs, safe injection education, and treatment programs offering opioid agonist and antagonist therapies.
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