Methadone prescribing by addiction specialists likely to leave communities without available methadone treatment.

Methadone treatment for opioid use disorder is not available in most suburban and rural US communities. We examined 2 options to expand methadone availability: (1) addiction specialty physician or (2) all clinician prescribing. Using 2022 Health Resources and Services Administration data, we used mental health professional shortage areas to indicate the potential of addiction specialty physician prescribing and the location of federally qualified health centers (ie, federally certified primary care clinics) to indicate the potential of all clinician prescribing.

Critical access medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) treatment facilities in the continental United States.

Research Objective: Medication opioid use disorder (MOUD) treatment is the first-line approach to the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). This analysis seeks to identify "critical access" MOUD facilities that ensure geographic access for MOUD patients. Using public-source data and spatial analysis, we identify the top 100 "critical access" MOUD units across the continental U.

Assessment of Community-Level Vulnerability and Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder.

Importance: Given that COVID-19 and recent natural disasters exacerbated the shortage of medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) services and were associated with increased opioid overdose mortality, it is important to examine how a community's ability to respond to natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks is associated with MOUD access.

Objective: To examine the association of community vulnerability to disasters and pandemics with geographic access to each of the 3 MOUDs and whether this association differs by urban, suburban, or rural classification.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study of zip code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) in the continental United States excluding Washington, DC, conducted a geospatial analysis of 2020 treatment location data.

Assessment of Structural Barriers and Racial Group Disparities of COVID-19 Mortality With Spatial Analysis.

Importance: Although social determinants of health (SDOH) are important factors in health inequities, they have not been explicitly associated with COVID-19 mortality rates across racial and ethnic groups and rural, suburban, and urban contexts.

Objectives: To explore the spatial and racial disparities in county-level COVID-19 mortality rates during the first year of the pandemic.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study analyzed data for all US counties in 50 states and the District of Columbia for the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic (January 22, 2020, to February 28, 2021).