Laws for expanding access to medications for opioid use disorder: a legal analysis of 16 states & Washington D.C.

ABSTRACT: Background: Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUDs) are the gold standard for OUD treatment but are underused. To our knowledge, no published study has systematically identified and categorized state policy innovations for expanding MOUD utilization.Objective: We sought to identify and categorize state MOUD policy innovations.Methods: Within a stratified random sample of 16 U.S. states and Washington D.C. we searched for 2019 state statutes and regulations related to MOUD in Westlaw legal database. We then identified laws that appeared designed to increase MOUD utilization and categorized them using a template analysis approach.Results: We found 82 laws with one or more MOUD expansion policies. We identified six high-level MOUD expansion policy categories: 1

SUBMITTER: Andraka-Christou B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10336699 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature