Several COVID-era flexibilities relied upon by opioid treatment programs and their hundreds of thousands of patients will become permanent later this year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) said last week.
SAMHSA's new final rule allows some opioid treatment program (OTP) providers to prescribe medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) like buprenorphine via telehealth without an initial in-person exam. It also allows them to dispense unsupervised, take-home doses of methadone to relatively stable patients.