Early changes in waivered clinicians and utilization of buprenorphine for opioid use disorder after implementation of the 2021 HHS Buprenorphine Practice Guidelines

Early changes in waivered clinicians and utilization of buprenorphine for opioid use disorder after implementation of the 2021 HHS Buprenorphine Practice Guidelines

Collection:
Health Policy and Services Research
Contributor(s):
United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, issuing body.
Publication:
Washington, D.C. : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, December 2, 2022
Language(s):
English
Format:
Text
Subject(s):
Buprenorphine -- therapeutic use
Drug Prescriptions -- statistics & numerical data
Drug Utilization -- statistics & numerical data
Drug Utilization -- trends
Opioid-Related Disorders -- drug therapy
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Scope of Practice
United States
United States. Department of Health and Human Services
Genre(s):
Technical Report
Abstract:
In April 2021 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued new Practice Guidelines for the Administration of Buprenorphine for Treating Opioid Use Disorder, which removed certification requirements related to training, counseling and other ancillary services for obtaining a Drug Addiction Treatment Act (DATA) of 2000 waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for up to 30 patients. We used an interrupted time series (ITS) analysis to measure early changes in trends in the number of clinicians with a DATA waiver, and national trends in the number of people filling buprenorphine prescriptions for opioid use disorder (OUD), after the Practice Guidelines took effect. The Practice Guidelines were associated with an acceleration in the growth of waivered clinicians. By the end of 2021, we estimate that this policy change was linked to an additional 5,830 providers certified to treat up to 30 patients-- about 16% more than what would have been expected given the trend prior to the Practice Guidelines. This corresponded to an increase in potential treatment capacity of about 174,900 patients. We did not observe an acceleration in buprenorphine uptake after the Practice Guidelines took effect, as measured by national estimates of the number of unique patients filling buprenorphine prescriptions for OUD each month. Additional time and policy efforts may be necessary for increased provider capacity to result in greater numbers of patients treated.
Copyright:
The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
Extent:
1 online resource (1 PDF file (21 pages))
Illustrations:
Illustrations
NLM Unique ID:
9918591685206676 (See catalog record)
Permanent Link:
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918591685206676