Facilities that accept state-financed health insurance plans other than Medicaid have increased odds of offering MOUD<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter<\/b><\/p>\n
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THURSDAY, June 20, 2024 (HealthDay News) — About one-third of community outpatient mental health treatment facilities (MHTFs) offer medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), according to a study published online June 18 in JAMA Network Open<\/em>.<\/p>\n Jonathan Cantor, Ph.D., from RAND in Santa Monica, California, and colleagues quantified the availability of MOUD at community outpatient MHTFs in high-burden states and characteristics associated with offering MOUD in a cross-sectional study. Staff at 450 community outpatient MHTFs (152 Certified Community Behavioral Health Centers [CCBHCs] and 298 non-CCBHCs) in 20 states were surveyed.<\/p>\n The researchers found that 34 percent of MHTFs offered MOUD based on weighted estimates. Self-reporting being a CCBHC, providing integrated mental and substance use disorder treatment, having a specialized treatment program for clients with co-occurring mental and substance use disorders, offering housing services, and laboratory testing were facility-level factors associated with increased odds of offering MOUD (odds ratios, 2.11, 5.21, 2.25, 2.54, and 2.15, respectively). Increased odds of offering MOUD were seen for facilities that accepted state-financed health insurance plans other than Medicaid as a form of payment (odds ratio, 1.95), while reduced odds were seen for facilities that accepted state mental health agency funds (odds ratio, 0.43).<\/p>\n “Outpatient community mental health treatment facilities can be an important part of the treatment ecosystem for individuals with opioid use disorders,” Cantor said in a statement. “Further attention is needed to address challenges to offering medication treatment, and to assess whether referral models cited by many of the clinics are effective at meeting patients’ needs.”<\/p>\n