Nearly 7 in 10 Medicaid patients not receiving treatment within 6 months of opioid use disorder diagnosis, study finds

Medical Xpress November 24, 2025
Taylor & Francis

A US study of more than a million Medicaid enrollees newly diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD), finds most—nearly seven in 10—are not receiving access to potentially life-saving drugs within six months.

The major gap in access to these medications—vital for those receiving free or low-cost health care and needing treatment for a dependency on heroin, painkillers and other opioids—is revealed ahead of looming Medicaid funding cuts, which threaten to further limit access to many different medications.

The research, published in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, demonstrates that Black patients are substantially more likely than white patients to struggle with accessing treatment.

With OUD continuing to claim tens of thousands of lives a year, the study authors...

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