Primary Care Providers And Specialists Deliver Comparable Buprenorphine Treatment Quality.

ABSTRACT: In response to rising numbers of opioid overdose deaths, primary care providers have been called on to play a greater role in delivering buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder. However, policy makers and providers have raised concerns that expanding treatment access may reduce treatment quality and that primary care providers are not well equipped to deliver buprenorphine treatment. We investigated two research questions in response to these concerns: How did buprenorphine treatment use and quality change in North Carolina Medicaid from 2014 to 2017, and how did buprenorphine treatment quality differ between primary care providers and specialists in North Carolina Medicaid during this period? We measured buprenorphine treatment quality as patients' retention in treatment and provi

SUBMITTER: Gertner AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7895292 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature