States Vary Widely in Buprenorphine Prescriptions, Study Finds

States that expanded their Medicaid programs have seen significantly higher numbers of prescriptions of the opioid addiction treatment buprenorphine, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute, a policy think tank in Washington, D.C.

Medicaid-covered buprenorphine prescriptions jumped from 1.3 million to 6.2 million between 2011 and 2018, the institute found in its analysis of the program’s State Drug Utilization Data.

More than two-thirds of the prescriptions last year — 77.2 percent — were in states that had opted for Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act by early 2014, the institute found.