Necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of telehealth for medications for opioid use disorder and overall treatment of opioid use disorder has dramatically accelerated. Colleagues across AIR and IMPAQ collaborated on an issue brief to understand the pandemic’s impact on treatment approaches for OUD and what policymakers, providers, and stakeholders can do to ensure equitable and effective telehealth treatment with medications for opioid use disorder.
Eliminating Health Disparities
Healthy People 2020 defines a health disparity as “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage." Disparities can be seen in the elevated incidence of HIV in the rural South, increased rates of obesity in lower-income populations; high rates of heart disease in African Americans; suicide rates in lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender populations or military veterans; shorter lifespans of lower-income workers; and increased complications from diabetes in Hispanic populations.
