Insurance rules make it harder to treat opioid use disorder

(Oregon Health& Science University) Insurance industry cost-control measures may be worsening the nation's opioid epidemic by limiting access to a key medication that treats addiction, according to a research letter published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Despite the medical profession's growing acceptance of the need for medications for addiction treatment that give hope to people suffering with opioid use disorder, a new study finds that insurance rules increasingly limited the use of buprenorphine among Medicare beneficiaries between 2007 and 2018.
Source: EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news