The medical profession has recently started accepting the necessity for medications concerning prescription substance abuse help bringing a ray of desire to people troubled with opioid use disorder (OUD). However, a recently conducted study by clinician scientists for the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland, observed that insurance rules are restricting using the prescription drug medicine, buprenorphine, among Medicare beneficiaries.
Buprenorphine is known as an effective and secure medication for treating heroin as well as other types of opioid addiction, thereby helping in decreasing deaths caused because of the same. According for the study co-author, Dr. Todd Korthuis, head of addiction medicine at OHSU, patients administered buprenorphine are located to return to their pre-addiction healthy state.
Ironical move by Medicare insurance carriers
In an OHSU news release, Dr. Korthuis declared that ironically, while insurance providers offering Medicare policies are responsible for it quite challenging for doctors to prescribe buprenorphine, they are earning it relatively easier to allow them to prescribe opioid pain-killer which triggered the current opioid epidemic.
For the intention of this study, the clinician scientists performed an analysis of data regarding Medicare Part D prescription drug plan and noticed that due to increasing using of certain pre-authorization conditions, the prescription of buprenorphine was increasingly restricted among insurance beneficiaries who decided upon Medicare plans between 2007 and 2018. Insurers commonly use pre-authorization conditions so as to restrict or manage entry to certain medications to restrict costs.
The study findings says around 90 percent on the insurance plans offered buprenorphine with virtually no restrictions in 2007. However, the proportion dropped to just about 35 percent by 2018. On the opposite hand, throughout the aforementioned time frame, the share of plans covering prescription opioids like OxyContin sans any limitations, increased from 93 to one hundred pc.
The researchers stated the factors influencing buprenorphine restrictions may reflect inaccurately perceived drug associated risks like financial considerations or societal norms linked to addiction. The findings of these studies were recently published within a research letter within the Journal from the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Benefits of prescribing buprenorphine
Approved from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), buprenorphine is one in the three medications approved from the FDA for treating OUD helping in easing withdrawal symptoms as well as the associated discomfort. Daniel Hartung, a co-employee professor with the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy, stated that as Medicare will not and never did cover methadone, additional anti-opioid medication prescribed for treating patients battling OUD, it is vital that it provides use of buprenorphine.
According to your U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), medications such as buprenorphine are a good means of treating opioid addiction. Unfortunately, said Dr. Korthuis, many people still contain the opinion that treating addiction with medications isn’t really the road to recovery. But scientific evidence backs the belief that medicines including buprenorphine present a better success rate at recovery than merely turning to approaches based only on abstinence.
Seeking prescription substance abuse help
Millions of men and women have lost their lives to your opioid crisis which is presently ravaging the United States, while countless others are facing exactly the same predicament. There is no doubt who’s would go on a mammoth effort to handle prescription drug crisis.