In Communities With Prevalent Medicaid Coverage, Buprenorphine Treatment Is Offered At Similar Rates To Both Medicaid & Commercial Beneficiaries

In communities where Medicaid is more prevalent form of health care coverage, addiction treatment with buprenorphine is as likely to be offered to Medicaid beneficiaries as to those who are privately insured. In a secret shopper survey of addiction treatment provider organizations that offer buprenorphine, about 45% of privately insured women, and 38% of otherwise comparable women enrolled in Medicaid received an insurance-covered appointment.

In communities where less than 10% of residents were enrolled in Medicaid, covered appointment rates for those with Medicaid were 11 percentage points lower than appointment rates for those with commercial insurance. In areas where . . .