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The annual board meeting last December of the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) was more than just a meeting. Eight board members conducted a number of visits to Capitol Hill, educating Congressional representatives and staff. A key focus of these visits was getting reimbursement for Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) from Medicare Part B (which … [Read more...] about AATOD Board Meeting Features Visits With Lawmakers, ONDCP, DEA, and SAMHSA

California has embraced the hub-and-spoke concept in implementing its State Targeted Response (STR) to the Opioid Crisis funding from the 21st Century Cures Act. The hub-and-spoke system was established in Vermont almost 10 years ago, with funding from the Affordable Care Act. The hub is an opioid treatment program (OTP) that does evaluations and assessments for all new … [Read more...] about California Moving Forward on Hub and Spoke, Care Teams

The hubs—OTPs—treat patients who have been assessed as needing the OTP level of care. These patients are given methadone, buprenorphine, or naltrexone. Patients in the spokes—physicians’ offices—are given buprenorphine or naltrexone. The study findings are in a 185-page report completed by Richard A. Rawson, PhD, a research professor with the Vermont Center on Behavior and … [Read more...] about Vermont Hub-and-Spoke Evaluation: No Opioid Overdoses, and a Sharp Drop—96%—in Opioid Use

Boston is not the only city with a powerful push by academics and providers for medication-assisted treatment (MAT), but it’s definitely one with a high profile. We talked with Janice F. Kauffman, RN, MPH, and Sarah Wakeman, MD, about how opioid treatment programs (OTPs), specifically, can help fight stigma against MAT. Education is important, but by itself won’t work because … [Read more...] about How OTPs Can Help Reduce Stigma: The Boston Experience

Here’s an eye-catching statistic: only about 3% of the world’s population is infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV)—but the infection rate in methadone users is a mind-boggling 70% to 90%. This high rate of infection is especially surprising now that better treatments, including an oral medication, are available for HCV infection. The new treatments are well tolerated, with few … [Read more...] about Research Report: Getting More Methadone Patients Into HCV Treatment