Almost 70 Percent of Medicaid Enrollees With Opioid Use Disorder Do Not Receive Meds

TUESDAY, Dec. 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- More than 69 percent of Medicaid enrollees with a new diagnosis of opioid use disorder (OUD) do not receive treatment within 180 days, according to a study published online Nov. 23 in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.Peter Treitler, Ph.D., from the Boston University School of Social Work, and colleagues examined patient- and community-level factors associated with timely medications for OUD (MOUD) receipt in a cohort study including Medicaid enrollees in 44 states aged 18 to 64 years with a new OUD diagnosis. A total of 1,172,200 Medicaid enrollees with a new OUD diagnosis were included in the study (51.8 percent female; 55.8 percent White).The researchers found that 69.2 percent did not receive MOUD within 180 days. Receipt of MOUD was lower among Black and Hispanic enrollees (hazard ratios, 0.68 and 0.91, respectively) versus White enrollees. Heroin/synthetic opioid overdose occurred in 3.2 percent of enrollees during follow-up; lower risk was more strongly associated with methadone and buprenorphine than with naltrexone (hazard ratios, 0.14 and 0.23 versus 0.70, respectively)."Increasing access to methadone may be particularly important, given its large protective effect against overdose and the substantial policy and service delivery barriers to access," Treitler said in a statement.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Almost 70 Percent of Medicaid Enrollees With Opioid Use Disorder Do Not Receive Meds

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