Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) combines the use of FDA-approved medications — methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone — with behavioral therapy and is recognized as the most effective treatment method for lasting recovery from opioid use disorder. The widespread adoption of MAT is hampered by a number of systemic barriers. The most notable difficulty is the significant shortage of authorized prescribers, which results from a combination of regulatory constraints and reimbursement limitations.
