The treatment of substance abuse problems with medication within the Medicaid population is the subject of a new report by the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission.

As required by the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act, which was enacted last year, MACPAC has prepared a report on how selected states administer and regulate the use of medications used to treat opioid and alcohol use disorders.

Among its findings:

• The frequency with which providers are prescribing medication to treat opioid and alcohol use disorders has exploded in recent years.
• States are starting to eliminate prior authorization for such prescriptions.
• But states still apply utilization management practices to such medications more frequently than they do for counseling for the same problems.
• States are becoming more likely to limit the quantities and doses that providers can prescribe at one time.
• More states are requiring providers to check prescription drug monitoring programs before prescribing medications to treat opioid and alcohol use disorders.

Private safety-net hospitals typically care for especially large numbers of  patients with opioid and alcohol use disorders who are insured by Medicaid.

Learn more about MACPAC’s findings in its new report “MACPAC Examines Access to Medication-Assisted Treatment under Medicaid.”