Impact of CARES Telehealth Expansion on Access to OUD Treatment

CMS recently released two briefs that summarize access to opioid use disorder treatment under the telehealth expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first brief, researchers describe the sociodemographic and health condition characteristics among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with OUD and by medication access, both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic and CARES Act implementation. In a second brief, researchers provided an overview of how access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for fee-for-service beneficiaries with opioid use disorder changed during the COVID-19 telehealth expansion.