New chronic opioid use in Medicaid patients following cholecystectomy

•A total of 54.4% of cholecystectomy Medicaid patients received opioids prior to surgery.•Nearly 40% continued to fill opioid prescriptions chronically.•Among opioid-naive patients, 27.1% continue to receive opioids after typical recovery from surgery.•Patients receiving ≥50 MME/d 30 days after surgery had 8 times the odds of chronic opioid use.•Each additional opioid prescription was associated with increased odds of chronic use (odds ratio: 1.71).