PEW Report Shows Importance of Telehealth in Improving Access to Opioid Treatment
In December, The PEW Charitable Trusts (PEW) released a new report, State Policy Changes Could Increase Access to Opioid Treatment via Telehealth, exploring the benefits of utilizing telehealth to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) and offering states policy recommendations to address telehealth policy barriers that hinder those benefits. The report highlights that research conducted during the pandemic has shown that telehealth-based OUD care improves patient ability to initiate and maintain treatment, in addition to findings that such patients abstain from illicit opioids at the same rates as those that received in-person treatment.