The article, “Associations Between Patient-Reported Experiences with Opioid Use Disorder Treatment and Unmet Treatment Needs and Discontinuation Among Virginia Medicaid Members,” has been published in SAj.
In this commentary, the authors state many payers, including Medicaid, the largest payer of opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment, are pursuing treatment-related quality improvement initiatives. Yet, how patient-reported experiences with OUD treatment relate to patient-centered outcomes remains poorly understood. The authors aim to examine associations between Medicaid members’ OUD treatment experiences, outpatient treatment settings, demographic and social factors, and members’ self-report of unmet needs during treatment and treatment discontinuation.
In the AUTHORS’ OWN WORDS, they relate the importance of their work:
” Medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) such as buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone are proven to reduce opioid use and overdose deaths as well as improve other treatment outcomes. Treatment with MOUD is the only type of treatment that has been shown to reduce the risk of overdose death as well as opioid-related acute care use. For any treatment, including MOUD, to be effective, patients must feel that they can access appropriate care where they are treated with dignity and respect. Reports of unmet needs during treatment represent important information about both the accessibility of treatment types and potential inequities, and patients’ identification of unmet needs may reflect poorer care for specific groups. Importantly, these unmet needs during treatment are associated with an increased risk of opioid overdose. Similarly, retention in treatment is an important quality measure in the treatment cascade. While MOUD is known to be highly efficacious, continued successful retention in treatment is critical: findings from a multi-state sample of Medicaid members from 2013 to 2017 showed that MOUD treatment discontinuation increased overdose risk, prescription opioid fills, as well as emergency department use and inpatient hospitalizations.”
“To inform and improve the OUD treatment delivery systems in Virginia Medicaid and beyond, we used a first-of-its-kind survey to characterize the relationship between patient-reported treatment experiences, type of outpatient treatment received, and patient-reported unmet treatment needs and discontinuation.”