- A study published in JAMA Network Open found that insurance type plays a role in how significant the financial barriers are to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) used to treat opioid use disorder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers found that the overall daily average of out-of-pocket costs for buprenorphine decreased from $4.79 in 2015 to $1.19 in 2020, but the cost varied widely depending on which insurance a patient had and where they lived. Medicaid patients accounted for 43 percent of prescriptions in 2020 and had the lowest out-of-pocket cost of $0.10 while self-pay had the highest at $7.50. Patients in southern states had an average daily cost of $2.91, compared to patients in the northeast who had a mean daily cost of $1.04. (Study here)
February 13, 2023
Opioid/Substance Use Disorders