Substance use disorder continues to be an ongoing battle for countless Americans in every part of the country.
While COVID-19-related shutdowns and job losses certainly played a role in exacerbating the crisis – more than 100,000 lives were lost to overdose in 2021 – innovative treatment methods that emerged during the pandemic may help fight the crisis moving forward.
A new study published in JAMA Psychiatry shows that client access to telehealth services for substance use disorder treatment correlated with greater compliance with medication assisted opioid treatment and lower risk of medically treated overdose.
“The expansion of telehealth services for people with substance use disorders during the pandemic has helped to address barriers to accessing medical care for addition throughout the country that have long existed,” Dr. Wilson Compton of the National Institute on Drug Abuse said in a press release announcing the study.
Wilson served as a lead author on the study, which was conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
“Telehealth is a valuable service and when coupled with medications for opioid use disorder can be lifesaving,” Wilson added. “This study adds to the evidence showing that expanded access to these services could have a longer-term positive impact if continued.”
The study compared data from the CMS from September 2018 to February 2020 (pre-pandemic) and from September 2019 to February 2021 (post-pandemic). All clients included in the data set were older than 18, were struggling with substance use disorder, and had what the study identified as “psychiatric comorbidities.”
Based on treatment compliance data, the authors of the study concluded that the combination of expanded access to both telehealth services and medication assisted opioid treatments during the pandemic, led to greater treatment compliance and reduced risk of overdose.
While telehealth offers many benefits and could reduce pressures or stigma felt by clients seeking care and treatment in their communities, the technology is not available to everyone. The study found that non-Hispanic black populations and those located in the southern U.S. had typically less access to telehealth care, underscoring the healthcare inequities that persist today.
Expanding telehealth services is just one way that technology solutions can help in the ongoing battle against substance use disorder. For decades, state and local behavioral health agencies have been deploying care management solutions that comply with U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Association (SAMHSA) standards for administering preventative and treatment programs. Often, these care management platforms also assist in reporting on SAMHSA grant activity back to the federal agency.
As a leading provider of innovative information technology solutions and services, FEI Systems continues to support customers in more than 30 states using our behavioral health care management solutions. Providers can record telehealth appointments, case notes and claims associated with a telehealth visit on our care management platforms.