In 2021, the reported number of deaths caused by opioid-related drug poisoning exceeded 81,000. The majority of these fatalities, amounting to over 71,000, were directly linked to fentanyl.1
The standard of care for opioid use disorder (OUD) requires practitioners to offer medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when medically appropriate.2 The FDA has approved three medications for the treatment of OUD: buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone.3
The federal government has prioritized increasing the number of practitioners who provide office-based opioid treatment (OBOT) using FDA-approved medications.4 Practitioners authorized to prescribe buprenorphine for OUD have cited the following reasons, among others, for their reluctance to provide OBOT:
- Inadequate training to support confidence in prescribing;
- Burdensome regulatory requirements; and
- Increasing regulatory and law enforcement scrutiny of practitioners who do provide such treatment.5
