buprenorphine

On Friday, the Indiana Medicaid Drug Utilization Review Board agreed to remove prior authorizations for preferred versions of the addiction treatment medication buprenorphine.

Doctors who can prescribe a medication for opioid addiction, and accept Medicaid, are already scarce. But even fewer will treat pregnant women. At this most vulnerable time, when both mother's and baby's lives are at stake, some doctors even drop their patients.

Even though most insurers cover the medicine women need to avoid withdrawal while pregnant, they require prior authorizations which can be riddled with bureaucratic hold-ups and clerical errors.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, referred to medication-assisted treatment for addiction as "substituting one opioid for another."

A new treatment delivers long-term relief from the pangs of withdrawal and the temptation to relapse. But will doctors be able to adapt their practices to actually use the innovation?

Probuphine is a rod that is implanted into the skin containing buprenorphine, an opioid dependence combative drug previously only taken orally.