Presentation Summary: Methadone maintenance treatment carries unfounded stigma in the United States for several reasons, including due to the real and perceived difficulties in reasonably accessing long-term treatment while maintaining quality-of-life. While recent SAMHSA take-home dose flexibilities help to expand treatment access, limitations still exist in ways that may impair success and retention. This presentation (1) describes the utility and (2) advocates to increase utilization of the SAMHSA exception request to enhance patient-centered care by increasing flexibility with take-home doses on an individualized basis for patients, based on reasoned clinical decision making, while enhancing medico-legal safety for providers and clinics.
Learning Objectives:
At the completion of this activity, participants will:
Recall how to register with the OTP extranet to submit SAMHSA exception requests and how to complete requests.
Discuss the scenarios for which a SAMHSA exception request can be utilized.
Explain the benefits of enhancing and normalizing utilization of the SAMHSA exception request in order to center ethical, patient-centered care by increasing safe access to medication longitudinally in supporting retention-in-treatment, while also increasing medico-legal and regulatory safety and supervision for providers and clinics.
