Clinicians Able To Prescribe Buprenorphine Have Increased, But Percentage Of Active Prescribers Has Declined

Between 2017 and 2021, the number of health care professionals able to prescribe buprenorphine as treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) increased by 182% (from 34,149 in 2017 to 96,415 in 2021). However, the share of those able to prescribe who did so has declined. Between 2017 and 2021, the percentage of active prescribers (defined as writing one or more prescriptions for buprenorphine in a given month) declined from 44.6% of all those able to prescribe to 32.6%.

During this time period, federal policies changed to reduce or remove requirements for prescribing buprenorphine for OUD. In . . .