Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jul-Aug;19(4):475-478.
doi: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000001439. Epub 2025 Jan 3.

Listings of Buprenorphine Offering by Substance Use Disorder Treatment Facilities and Waivered Clinician From July 2019 to May 2021

Mir M Ali  1 , Erin A Taylor, Bradley D Stein, Yuji Mizushima, Denis Agniel, Jonathan Cantor
Affiliations

Listings of Buprenorphine Offering by Substance Use Disorder Treatment Facilities and Waivered Clinician From July 2019 to May 2021

Mir M Ali et al. J Addict Med. 2025 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

Objectives: This study explores trends in buprenorphine availability at substance use disorder treatment facilities (SUDTFs) and by waivered clinicians during the pandemic. We also examined whether there were differences in access based on a county's metropolitan status and annual fatal drug poisoning rate.

Methods: Data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration' Behavioral Health Treatment Locator between July 2019 and May 2021 were used to calculate trends in SUDTFs offering buprenorphine and the number of waivered clinicians per 10,000 population. We calculated unadjusted trends over time, stratified by whether a county was above or below the annual median age-adjusted fatal drug overdose rate in that year and the county's metropolitan status.

Results: Results showed an increase in SUDTFs and waivered clinicians offering buprenorphine before the pandemic, but the rate leveled off during the pandemic. On average, the increase in facilities was about 8 percentage points per year, and the increase in waivered clinicians was 0.29 per year. The percentage of SUDTFs offering buprenorphine peaked at 47%, and the number of waivered clinicians leveled off at 1.61 per 10,000 population.There were more SUDTFs and clinicians offering buprenorphine in metropolitan versus nonmetropolitan counties. There were also more SUDTFs and clinicians offering buprenorphine in counties above versus below median poisoning rates.

Conclusions: This study provides insights into how buprenorphine availability changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and before the removal of the X-waiver in 2023. More outreach will be needed to encourage the offering of buprenorphine by SUDTFs and office-based clinicians.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; buprenorphine hydrochloride; opioid use disorder.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Drug Overdose Deaths: Facts and Figures . August 21, 2024. https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates . Accessed September 11, 2024.
    1. Wakeman SE, Larochelle MR, Ameli O, et al. Comparative effectiveness of different treatment pathways for opioid use disorder. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(2):e1920622.
    1. Jones CM, Han B, Baldwin GT, et al. Use of medication for opioid use disorder among adults with past-year opioid use disorder in the US, 2021. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(8):e2327488.
    1. Krawczyk N, Rivera BD, Jent V, et al. Has the treatment gap for opioid use disorder narrowed in the U.S.?: a yearly assessment from 2010 to 2019. Int J Drug Policy. 2022;110:103786.
    1. Ghertner R, Ali MM. Increases in providers with buprenorphine waivers in the United States from 2016 to 2019. Psychiatr Serv. 2020;71(9):971.

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources