Assessing Access to Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in Rural Communities Influenced by the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP)
Description:
Buprenorphine is an effective medication for OUD, but access to this life-saving medication can be difficult, especially in rural areas. Despite legislative changes to expand the types of clinicians who could obtain a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for OUD, rural communities have lagged behind their urban counterparts in access to buprenorphine treatment for the past 10 years. At the beginning of 2023, the requirement to hold a DEA waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for OUD was eliminated. This made tracking the workforce that prescribes buprenorphine more challenging.
This project will address this new tracking gap by measuring the number of clinicians who are actually prescribing buprenorphine and the population-adjusted number of patients receiving a prescription. This project will use national prescription claims data to compare access to buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder in rural counties with and without Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) funding and urban counties. An accurate understanding of access to buprenorphine treatment is essential for determining the influence of RCORP funding on a critical strategy for curbing the opioid epidemic.
Contact
Funder:
HRSA
Status:
In Progress