Treating the Epidemic, Part 3: The Future of Addiction Treatment
With the rising need for qualified providers to work together in MAT programs to improve “whole person” OUD care outcomes, the federal government has given its support to the use of telemedicine to treat OUD, beginning with the initial assessment and prescribing. This will mean that qualified providers can treat addiction patients anywhere they are licensed, and prescribe life-saving addiction meds for OUD patients, like Suboxone and Naloxone, through interactive video conferencing on a computer, tablet, or phone.
At PursueCare (www.pursuecare.com), we are attempting to solve the problem by bringing together qualified MAT practitioners and therapists on a virtual platform to address barriers to access, increase patient engagement in treatment, reduce relapse, and create greater continuity between the prescribing practitioners, addiction counselors/therapists, and pharmacy services that patients need to work for them during their recovery journey.
PursueCare is establishing a network of qualified MAT practitioners and addiction counselors/therapists to participate with our telehealth platform so that patients can conveniently schedule and receive care that works around their needs via secure, real-time video-conferencing technology.
We aren’t merely another telehealth platform. We are building a specialized network of both on-demand and scheduled services, allowing for providers to better treat addiction patients from the outset of care, wherever patients are located, or as part of a transition-of-care plan after short- and long-term residential programs conclude.
Care coordination and reporting between disparate providers treating the same patient, insurance eligibility checks and support, billing services, patient engagement-enhancing smartphone notifications, documentation support, and advanced clinical protocols for improving outcomes are some of the resources available through our platform and easy-to-use portal that will benefit providers who either already have a successful addiction treatment program, or are looking to build one that crosses geographic and cross-provider barriers in the care continuum.
CompreCareRX (www.comprecarerx.com), our Joint Commission and Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Site (VIPPS) accredited mail-order specialty and compounding pharmacy partner, is focused exclusively on addiction care and non-opioid pain management alternatives.
We want to make it as convenient as possible for patients with transportation issues, work and child care conflicts, or who are simply remotely located from convenient care, to make and keep appointments in order to access effective MAT programs and ongoing recovery care. The goal is to create efficient and effective care coordination, to help prescribing practitioners successfully start and keep OUD patients on their recovery journey, and to empower more addiction counselors and therapists to safely and effectively provide ongoing therapy to OUD clients. We also intend to work with insurance plans, state programs, and community initiatives to bring education, low-cost programs, and effective care to the populations they are targeting.
The epidemic is simply too large to tackle through traditional methods alone. The onus should not be on the patient to navigate their recovery alone. We believe that we can leverage technology, pooled resources, and common-sense to bring improve outcomes to the patients that need our help.