Value-Based Care Strategies for SUD Organizations Are a ‘Continuum,’ Not an Endpoint

Taking incremental steps is critical for providers looking to transition into value-based care models for substance use disorder (SUD) services. Overall, SUD treatment is seeing a growing shift toward value-based payment models. This dynamic has the potential to improve patient outcomes, close care gaps and encourage integrated care coordination. However, providers looking to shift to […]

Youth Recovery Hinges on Community Support, Yet Providers Lack Reimbursement Pathway

This is an exclusive BHB+ story Psychosocial interventions continue to be the primary way to treat youth substance use disorders (SUDs). Yet, these approaches are often formal and miss the mark on building community. “I feel like mental health treatment in particular is very sterile. It’s very focused on meds and one-to-one interactions,” Dr. Joseph […]

Underutilization of Hospital-Based Treatment Is Hurting SUD Patients

Hospitals could have a strategic opportunity to connect individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) with services. Nearly 10% of adults who were diagnosed with SUD had past-year hospitalizations, according to a new study that looked at 60 million adults with SUDs. Patients with opioid use disorders (OUD) had the highest hospitalization rate at almost 24%, […]

Charlie Health Debuts Virtual SUD, Medication-Assisted Treatment for High-Acuity Patients

Charlie Health, a virtual high-acuity behavioral health provider, has added a new substance use disorder (SUD) treatment program to its service offerings. The program is catered to individuals whose primary need is SUD care, but may also have other co-occurring mental health needs.   This new offering will be available to all patients and be supported […]

RFK Jr.’s Latest Opioid Crisis Update Takes on Faith-Based, Service Tone

Faith-based substance use disorder (SUD) programs could have a resurgence under U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. While Kennedy recently stressed the importance of medication-assisted treatment, such as Suboxone and Methadone, he also focused on spiritual and service frameworks to treat SUD. During his April 24 speech at the Rx and […]

Buprenorphine Access Fell 3% Nationally Due to Medicaid Redeterminations

Eight months after Medicaid redeterminations began, there was nearly a 3% drop in patients receiving buprenorphine to treat their opioid use disorders (OUDs). A new JAMA study found a significant decline in medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in the months following Medicaid determinations. This is despite a rise in both OUDs and an increase […]

Acadia Healthcare Faces New Scrutiny Over Alleged Abuse at Shuttered Facility

More allegations of abuse and misconduct at an Acadia Healthcare (Nasdaq: ACHC) facility have surfaced in an investigation by The New York Times, which reports alleged instances of patient suicide and rape. The latest report comes just two months after Acadia Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest behavioral health providers, shuttered its troubled Timberline Knolls […]

Trump’s Drug Policy Plan Takes on Law-and-Order Focus

The Trump administration’s new drug policy prioritizes a focus on border security and law enforcement. This approach deviates from past efforts, which have focused on a patient and health care-centric approach to combating the opioid epidemic.  “To meet the urgent need of this moment, the Trump administration is launching an unprecedented whole-of-government effort to stop […]

Rise in Extended-Release Buprenorphine Signals Potential Breakthrough in OUD Treatment Access

More patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) are turning to extended-release buprenorphine to treat their substance use than ever before. However, prescription use of non-extended release formulations has declined, according to a Massachusetts-focused study published in JAMA Network Open. Throughout the state, men were also more likely to be prescribed the extended-release version than women. […]