Background-Improving access to treatment for opioid use disorder is a national priority, but little is known about the barriers encountered by patients seeking buprenorphine-naloxone ("buprenorphine") treatment.

Germany), for their contribution to this work for methodology (Ms Fink), data analysis (Ms Fink), data collection (Drs Raile and Pappa), scientific discussion of the results (Ms Fink and Drs Raile and Pappa), and editing of the manuscript (Ms Fink and Drs Raile and Pappa). Andreas Hungele and Ramona Ranz developed the DPV software, Esther Bollow aggregated the DPV data, and Alexander Eckert, MSc, helped with the analysis (all clinical data managers, Ulm University). We thank Marianne Rohrer (Homburg) for language editing. None of the persons named received compensation for their contributions. We thank all centers participating in the DPV initiative (a list is available at www.d-p-v.eu).

BACKGROUND: With mounting pressure to reduce opioid use, concerns exist about abrupt withdrawal of treatment for the millions of Americans using long-term opioid therapy (LTOT). However, little is known about how patients are tapered from LTOT nationally. OBJECTIVE: Measure national patterns of LTOT discontinuation and adherence to recommended tapering speed. DESIGN: Observational study of Medicare Part D from 2012 to 2017. PARTICIPANTS: Using claims for a 20% sample of Medicare beneficiaries, we included patients on LTOT for 1 year or more, defined as those with ≥ 4 consecutive quarters with > 60 days of opioids supplied in each quarter. MAIN MEASURES: Our primary outcome was discontinuation of LTOT, defined as at least 60 consecutive days without opioids supplied. We additionally examined whether discontinuation of LTOT was "tapered" or "abrupt" by comparing LTOT users' daily MME dose in the last month of therapy to their average daily dose in a baseline period of 7 to 12 months before discontinuation. By the last month of therapy, patients with "abrupt" discontinuation had a < 50% reduction in their average daily dose at baseline. KEY RESULTS: From 2012 to 2017, there were 258,988 LTOT users, 17,617 of whom discontinued therapy. Adjusted rates of LTOT discontinuation increased from 5.7% of users in 2012 to 8.5% in 2017, a 49% relative increase (p < 0.001). There was a similar increase in annual discontinuation rate for LTOT users on lower (26-90 MME, 5.8% to 8.7%, p < 0.001) vs. higher doses (> 90 MME, 5.3% to 7.7%, p < 0.001). The majority of LTOT discontinuations were stopped abruptly, and increased over time (70.1% to 81.2%, 2012-2017, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Medicare beneficiaries on LTOT were increasingly likely to have their therapy discontinued from 2012 to 2017. The vast majority of discontinuing users, even those on high doses, had less than 50% reduction in dose, which is inconsistent with existing guidelines.

IMPORTANCE Systematically capturing cancer stage is essential for any serious effort by health systems to monitor outcomes and quality of care in oncology. However, oncologists do not routinely record cancer stage in machine-readable structured fields in electronic health records (EHRs). OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether a peer comparison email intervention that communicates an oncologist's performance on documenting cancer stage relative to that of peer physicians was associated with increased likelihood that stage was documented in the EHR.