AMA leader: Focus on drug treatments

The doctor who heads up the American Medical Association’s opioid task force said addressing the crisis will require more physicians to become certified in medication-assisted, substance-use treatment and more insurance companies to reduce barriers to access.

Dr. Patrice Harris, a psychiatrist who practices in Atlanta, was in Columbus on Thursday to participate in a panel discussion sponsored by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, which Harris focuses on helping patients and providers make betterinformed treatment decisions.

“There’s still a huge stigma that patients who have substance-abuse disorder have to overcome to even seek treatment and, unfortunately, once they seek treatment it’s not available,” Harris said.

She referred specifically to medication-assisted treatment, through which patients receive counseling and behavioral therapies along with drugs that ease withdrawal symptoms and/ or block the effects of opioids. It is often touted as the “gold standard” of addiction treatment.

Harris said insurers are beginning to address coverage issues, but that some still ask for prior authorizations, require doctors to try other treatments first or fail to cover mental-health issues in the same way they cover other illnesses.

The same concerns are being expressed by physicians in Ohio, who feel such limitations mean they cannot