Restrictions insurers implement to help control costs — like prior authorization — may be limiting physicians' use of buprenorphine to treat patients with opioid use disorder, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
For the study, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University in Portland evaluated the rate of preauthorization requirements for buprenorphine using data from Medicare Part D prescription drug plans.
Researchers found the amount of insurance plans that offered buprenorphine without any restrictions dropped from 89 percent in 2007 to 35 percent in 2018.
"Medicare insurance companies are making it increasingly difficult to prescribe buprenorphine while making it easy to prescribe opioid pain medications that contributed to the opioid epidemic," study co-author Todd Korthuis, MD, a professor at OHSU School of Medicine, said in a press release.
Sufficient access to buprenorphine is crucial for Medicare patients, as the program has historically not covered methadone, an alternative treatment for opioid use disorder, researchers noted.