TY - JOUR
AU - P. J. Joudrey
AU - D. Halpern
AU - Q. Lin
AU - S. Paykin
AU - C. Mair
AU - M. Kolak
A1 - 
AB - Methadone treatment for opioid use disorder is not available in most suburban and rural US communities. We examined 2 options to expand methadone availability: (1) addiction specialty physician or (2) all clinician prescribing. Using 2022 Health Resources and Services Administration data, we used mental health professional shortage areas to indicate the potential of addiction specialty physician prescribing and the location of federally qualified health centers (ie, federally certified primary care clinics) to indicate the potential of all clinician prescribing. We examined how many census tracts without an available opioid treatment program (ie, methadone clinic) are (1) located within a mental health professional shortage area and (2) are also without an available federally qualified health center. Methadone was available in 49% of tracts under current regulations, 63% of tracts in the case of specialist physician prescribing, and 86% of tracts in the case of all clinician prescribing. Specialist physician prescribing would expand availability to an additional 12% of urban, 18% of suburban, and 16% of rural tracts, while clinician prescribing would expand to an additional 30% of urban, 53% of suburban, and 58% of rural tracts relative to current availability. Results support enabling broader methadone prescribing privileges to ensure equitable treatment access, particularly for rural communities.
AD - Center for Research on Health Care, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States.; Data Science Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, United States.; Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg 413 46, Sweden.; Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, United States.; Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, United States.
AN - 38288046
BT - Health Aff Sch
C5 - Opioids & Substance Use; Healthcare Disparities
CP - 5
DA - Nov
DO - 10.1093/haschl/qxad061
DP - NLM
ET - 20231007
IS - 5
JF - Health Aff Sch
LA - eng
N2 - Methadone treatment for opioid use disorder is not available in most suburban and rural US communities. We examined 2 options to expand methadone availability: (1) addiction specialty physician or (2) all clinician prescribing. Using 2022 Health Resources and Services Administration data, we used mental health professional shortage areas to indicate the potential of addiction specialty physician prescribing and the location of federally qualified health centers (ie, federally certified primary care clinics) to indicate the potential of all clinician prescribing. We examined how many census tracts without an available opioid treatment program (ie, methadone clinic) are (1) located within a mental health professional shortage area and (2) are also without an available federally qualified health center. Methadone was available in 49% of tracts under current regulations, 63% of tracts in the case of specialist physician prescribing, and 86% of tracts in the case of all clinician prescribing. Specialist physician prescribing would expand availability to an additional 12% of urban, 18% of suburban, and 16% of rural tracts, while clinician prescribing would expand to an additional 30% of urban, 53% of suburban, and 58% of rural tracts relative to current availability. Results support enabling broader methadone prescribing privileges to ensure equitable treatment access, particularly for rural communities.
PY - 2023
SN - 2976-5390
ST - Methadone prescribing by addiction specialists likely to leave communities without available methadone treatment
T1 - Methadone prescribing by addiction specialists likely to leave communities without available methadone treatment
T2 - Health Aff Sch
TI - Methadone prescribing by addiction specialists likely to leave communities without available methadone treatment
U1 - Opioids & Substance Use; Healthcare Disparities
U3 - 10.1093/haschl/qxad061
VL - 1
VO - 2976-5390
Y1 - 2023
ER -