Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. counties lacked opioid treatment programs or office-based providers of buprenorphine, which reduces the risk of future overdoses, found a federal review of whether drugs for opioid abuse are reaching areas of greatest need. It'another sign that many addicts aren't getting access to potentially life-saving treatments, reports Axios. In 2022, people seeking treatment — including those enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid — often faced hurdles finding providers allowed to prescribe and dispense drugs for opioid use disorder, the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general found. Even in counties with services, providers often did not treat Medicare or Medicaid enrollees.
Some 597 of the 3,143 U.S. counties (19%) did not have any office-based buprenorphine providers or opioid treatment programs; 26% of counties in high need of services based on their overdose death rates had few or no providers; 32% of all counties and 19% of all high-need counties lacked providers that treated either Medicare or Medicaid enrollees. Texas, Georgia and Kansas had the lowest percentage of office-based buprenorphine providers that treated Medicaid enrollees in 2022. Policymakers have taken steps to expand access to treatments amid the addiction crisis, including adding opioid treatment coverage to Medicare and requiring state Medicaid programs to cover all forms drugs for opioid use disorder.
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