Esposito DB, Cepeda MS, Holick CN, et al. - On 09 July 2012, the US FDA required a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for extended-release and long-acting (ER/LA) opioid analgesics. Opioid overdose incidences before (July 2010-June 2012) vs after (July 2013-September 2016) the initiation of the REMS for ER/LA opioid analgesics were determined. National data from the HealthCore Integrated Research Database and US Medicaid claims data from four states yielded data of a total of 121,229 commercially insured and 11,488 Medicaid patients for this analysis. Medicaid patients exhibited substantially higher rates of overdose incidences than commercially insured patients. Commercially insured patients exhibited leveling off of overdose rates and Medicaid patients exhibited a decline which is encouraging. However, it is hard to disentangle the particular influence of the REMS from many other ongoing initiatives with similar goals.