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- Page navigation anchor for RE: Financing Buprenorphine Treatment in Primary CareRE: Financing Buprenorphine Treatment in Primary Care
As a student who has taken the waiver training for medication assisted treatment and awaits the ability to use it in practice, I am delighted to see this interesting work presented in the journal, and I want to take the opportunity to remind readers of the humanistic concerns interwoven into the financial ones.[1] As the opioid epidemic continues, access to buprenorphine is a significant unmet community need, and family physicians are well-positioned to fill the gap.[2] It also makes sense that many family physicians within a fragmented healthcare landscape may be uncertain whether or how to incorporate MAT in their practices. As the authors admit, more work must be done, but for now, modeling practice costs and revenues and identifying practice targets for profitability seems to be an excellent step to demonstrate feasibility of MAT implementation across practice styles. I am hopeful that the authors’ work should encourage more family physicians to begin providing MAT.
It is also essential to address attitudes about acceptability as we address barriers to MAT in training, clinician support, or financial solvency. Alongside more tangible hurdles, stigma is a significant workforce barrier to buprenorphine treatment and one that is likely underreported.[3] Stigma against people who use drugs and against MAT continues to block progress in efforts to control the opioid epidemic, and in the AMA Journal of Ethics, the Surgeon General and the Director of the National Insti...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.