The evidence doesn't justify steps by state Medicaid programs to restrict opioid addiction treatment with buprenorphine
UMass Chan Affiliations
Clinical and Population Health ResearchCenter for Health Policy and Research
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2011-08-01Keywords
AdolescentAdult
Aged
*Analgesics, Opioid
Buprenorphine
Databases, Factual
Female
Humans
Insurance Claim Review
Male
Massachusetts
*Medicaid
Middle Aged
Opiate Substitution Treatment
Opioid-Related Disorders
United States
Young Adult
Community Health and Preventive Medicine
Preventive Medicine
Primary Care
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Many state Medicaid programs restrict access to buprenorphine, a prescription medication that relieves withdrawal symptoms for people addicted to heroin or other opiates. The reason is that officials fear that the drug is costlier or less safe than other therapies such as methadone. To find out if this is true, we compared spending, the use of services related to drug-use relapses, and mortality for 33,923 Massachusetts Medicaid beneficiaries receiving either buprenorphine, methadone, drug-free treatment, or no treatment during the period 2003-07. Buprenorphine appears to have significantly expanded access to treatment because the drug can be prescribed by a physician and taken at home compared with methadone, which by law must be administered at an approved clinic. Buprenorphine was associated with more relapse-related services but $1,330 lower mean annual spending than methadone when used for maintenance treatment. Mortality rates were similar for buprenorphine and methadone. By contrast, mortality rates were 75 percent higher among those receiving drug-free treatment, and more than twice as high among those receiving no treatment, compared to those receiving buprenorphine. The evidence does not support rationing buprenorphine to save money or ensure safety.Source
Health Aff (Millwood). 2011 Aug;30(8):1425-33. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0532Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/30867PubMed ID
21821560Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0532