News & Updates — Program Brief

Over the last five years, FORE-funded researchers have published nearly 60 journal articles that advance our understanding of how policy and practice shape access to prevention, treatment, and recovery supports for people with opioid use disorder (OUD).

To bring more attention to their work, FORE has launched a new series of data briefs. The first, released today, captures key findings from five studies that examined opportunities and efforts to broaden access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) such as buprenorphine via mental health clinics, primary care offices, pharmacies, and emergency departments.

The studies shed light on why — despite evidence of MOUD’s effectiveness and an expansion of insurance coverage enabled by the Affordable Care Act — fewer than one in five people diagnosed with OUD received some form of MOUD in 2023.

Building on surveys, focus groups, and analyses of data from electronic medical records and medical claims, the authors identify key provider-, facility-, and system-level factors that enhance or inhibit patients’ access to MOUD in these settings. Among other important findings, they were able to capture:

• The extent to which publicly funded mental health clinics in states with high overdose rates offer MOUD to patients;
• The benefits of removing prior authorization requirements and enhancing payment to primary care clinicians as a means of increasing MOUD prescribing;
• How prescribing or treating patients with buprenorphine in the emergency department increases treatment engagement; and
• How staff perceptions of prescribers, patients, and MOUD effectiveness shape decisions to dispense MOUD in rural pharmacies.

Taken together, their work suggests new pathways for supporting health care systems in establishing or expanding their capacity to deliver MOUD. The studies also point to the need for new strategies to communicate the effectiveness of medications like buprenorphine and methadone in reducing overdose deaths.

“We hope this new series and the underlying data will be useful to patients, providers, and policymakers who share an interest in building more effective systems of care for people with OUD,” Karen A. Scott, FORE’s president, says.