by Nada Hassanein, Kentucky Lantern
July 4, 2025

A study published Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open found that emergency room clinicians were much less likely to refer Black opioid overdose patients for outpatient treatment compared with white patients.

The researchers looked at the medical records of 1,683 opioid overdose patients from emergency rooms in nine states: California, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

About 5.7% of Black patients received referrals for outpatient treatment, compared with 9.6% of white patients, according to the researchers, who received a federal grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to conduct the analysis.

While the nation saw a decrease in opioid overdose deaths in white people between 2021 and 2022, overdose death rates increased for American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian, Black and Hispanic people. Patients visiting ERs for opioid overdoses are more likely to die from an overdose after the visit, the authors wrote, underscoring the importance of gaining “an improved understanding of disparities in [emergency department] treatment and referral.”

In total, roughly 18% of the patients received a referral for outpatient treatment, 43% received a naloxone kit or prescription, and 8.4% received a prescription for buprenorphine, the first-line medication for treating opioid use disorder.

The researchers used records from 10 hospital sites participating in a national consortium collecting data on overdoses from fentanyl and its related drugs. The patient records were from September 2020 to November 2023.

Another study in JAMA Network Open, released Thursday, found similar disparities: Black and Hispanic patients were significantly less likely than white patients to receive buprenorphine. Black patients had a 17% chance, and Hispanic patients a 16% chance, to be prescribed the therapy, compared with a 20% chance for white patients.

The authors of that study, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, looked at data from 176,000 records of opioid-related events between 2017 and 2022 across all 50 states.

This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.

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Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This content focuses on racial disparities in healthcare responses to opioid overdoses, highlighting systemic inequities faced by Black and Hispanic patients compared to white patients. The emphasis on government-funded research, public health interventions, and racial justice in medical treatment aligns with themes commonly associated with center-left perspectives that advocate for social equity and expanded healthcare access. The article’s balanced presentation of data and reliance on credible studies maintain an informational tone, without overt partisan or ideological framing, situating it moderately left of center.