Medication-assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in Rhode Island: Who Gets Treatment, and Does Treatment Improve Health Outcomes?

Contact: Cameron Doherty
Email:  Cameron.Doherty@bos.frb.org

The New England Public Policy Center at the Boston Fed recently released a report entitled “Medication-assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in Rhode Island: Who Gets Treatment, and Does Treatment Improve Health Outcomes?”. Though the work is based on empirical data in Rhode Island, I thought that you may find it applicable to issues in New Hampshire as well.

The report’s findings include:

• Those with opioid dependence who live in areas with elevated poverty rates are less likely to receive buprenorphine, but more likely to receive methadone. 
  • Having Medicaid insurance is associated with a much greater chance of receiving methadone.
• The typical buprenorphine prescriber has a caseload that is well below the maximum number of patients they could treat, and more people could be helped if more prescribers took full advantage of prescribing limits. 
  • Policies that enable mid-level practitioners to train to prescribe buprenorphine was found to draw in new patients, particularly those from high-poverty Zip codes.