Addiction Treatment Reveals Racial Gaps in the U.S.

People with opioid use disorder are receiving evidence-based treatment for the disease in the U.S., but considerable gaps in care along racial lines still exist as per a study among Medicaid recipients at the University of Pittsburgh, published in //the journal JAMA.

Opioid use disorder is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. The prevalence of opioid use disorder has increased among Medicaid enrollees from 3.3% in 2014 to 5% in 2018.

Drug Detox – Alcohol, Opioid, Nicotine Detoxification
Drug detoxification (or drug detox) is a process that helps drug addicts to give up drugs with less or no withdrawal symptoms.

‘People with opioid use disorder are receiving evidence-based treatment for the disease in the U.S., but considerable gaps in care along racial lines still exist. This provides insights for policymakers and medical providers to improve access to quality care for these populations. ’

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"Medicaid plays an incredibly important role in our health system, and the population it serves overlaps with those most likely to have opioid use disorder. But Medicaid is 50-plus separate programs that can’t easily share data. For the first time, we’ve pooled a large part of that data, enabling us to draw powerful conclusions that could better enable our country to address the opioid epidemic, which has only grown more intense during the COVID-19 pandemic," says co-author Julie Donohue, Ph.D., chair, and professor of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health Department of Health Policy and Management.

Effective Treatment is the Key

Opioid use disorder can be treated effectively with unimpeded access to medical benefits. The study demonstrates that state Medicaid expansion provided access to care for a population that needed to be engaged in the health care system.

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The Black enrollees were considerably less likely than White enrollees to be treated with medications for their opioid use disorder and were less likely to have continuity of such treatment. The result was even worse for pregnant women with opioid use disorder who were far more likely to receive continuous medication-assisted treatment, possibly because of their active engagement in pregnancy care.

The diverse results among the various populations were shared by the team to each state’s Medicaid managers.

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"State Medicaid officials were very engaged in determining measures on which they were performing particularly well, as well as areas where they could improve. And not only could they see where improvement was possible, but they also could talk with other state officials and learn about successful programs and practices. Improved understanding of factors driving increased use of medications for opioid use disorder is crucial to closing remaining treatment gaps," says, Donohue.

Source-Medindia

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