County-level Factors and Treatment Access Among Insured Women With Opioid Use Disorder

Background: An over 40% increase in overdose deaths within the past 2 years and low levels of engagement in treatment call for a better understanding of factors that influence access to medication for opioid use disorder (OUD).

Objective: To examine whether county-level characteristics influence a caller's ability to secure an appointment with an OUD treatment practitioner, either a buprenorphine-waivered prescriber or an opioid treatment program (OTP).

Research design and subjects: We leveraged data from a randomized field experiment comprised of simulated pregnant and nonpregnant women of reproductive age seeking treatment for OUD among 10 states in the US. We employed a mixed-effects logistic regression model with random intercepts for counties to examine the relationship between appointments received and salient county-level factors related to OUD.

Measures: Our primary outcome was the caller's ability to secure an appointment with an OUD treatment practitioner. County-level predictor variables included socioeconomic disadvantage rankings, rurality, and OUD treatment/practitioner density.

Results: Our sample comprised 3956 reproductive-aged callers; 86% reached a buprenorphine-waivered prescriber and 14% an OTP. We found that 1 additional OTP per 100,000 population was associated with an increase (OR=1.36, 95% CI: 1.08 to 1.71) in the likelihood that a nonpregnant caller receives an OUD treatment appointment from any practitioner.

Conclusions: When OTPs are highly concentrated within a county, women of reproductive age with OUD have an easier time securing an appointment with any practitioner. This finding may suggest greater practitioners' comfort in prescribing when there are robust OUD specialty safety nets in the county.