NB19-28 Disability Insurance and Treatment for Pain

Recent research finds that one-quarter of SSDI beneficiaries are chronic users of opioid prescription medicines, and roughly one-half of beneficiaries have had at least one opioid prescription. Is disability program participation a consequence of pain treatment with prescription opioids, or a route to obtaining affordable prescription opioids? This project will explore the relationship between the treatment of pain with prescription opioids and disability program participation, using newly developed Social Security Administrative data and commercial medical claims.