In January of 2022, a medical director of government relations partnered with an addiction medicine content manager and medical director, to write a white paper on the importance of expanding access to medication for addiction treatment (MAT). The paper expounded on methadone treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), racial disparities in access to MAT, the community pharmacist role, and supports H.R.6279: Opioid Treatment Access Act of 2022, introduced by Congressman Donald Norcross in December of 2021.
The Act aims to increase access to and modernize the process of obtaining MAT. This proposed change in federal legislation would decrease barriers to treatment by sustaining relaxed methadone dispensing regulations enacted during the COVID–19 pandemic and making methadone available at pharmacies, enabling ease of patient access to evidence-based treatment and empowering them to spend less time waiting in line for their medication.
During the pandemic, federal restrictions have been temporarily lifted and allow patients to take home larger quantities of methadone at a time; preliminary studies have shown that this has increased engagement with treatment. The federal exemption has been extended—however, patients are still required to obtain their medication albeit larger doses from opioid treatment programs (OTP). The bill also calls for research to evaluate the effects that legislative changes have on treatment access and outcomes.
The paper was presented to Senator Joseph F. Vitale and the New Jersey State Legislature, and an iteration abridged summary was published in the New Jersey Medication for Addiction Treatment Centers of Excellence (MATCOE) newsletter. Learn more here.
Fortunato P, Haroz R, Baston K. E. Expanding Access to Medication for Addiction Treatment: A White Paper Prepared for the New Jersey State Legislature. Cooper University Health Care Center for Healing, State of New Jersey Medication for Addiction Treatment Center of Excellence. 2022.
