Opioid addiction treatment more accessible in Arizona with new federal regulations

PHOENIX — New federal regulations are making opioid addiction treatment more accessible in Arizona.

Authorities are loosening regulations around methadone, a life-saving drug that manages opioid withdrawal symptoms.

Now, eligible patients can take home 28 days’ worth of methadone instead of traveling to a methadone clinic every day to receive the medicine.

It’s going to be a game changer for opioid addiction treatment in the state, according to Beth Meyerson, a professor of family and community medicine with the University of Arizona.

“You can only get methadone in programs called opioid treatment clinics,” Meyerson told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Thursday. “You must go to that clinic. The difference, now, with the law change, is that you don’t have to go daily and have your medication ingestion, or your taking of the medication, observed.”

Meyerson, a researcher who studies methadone policies, said the rule that allows some patients to take home a four-week supply and administer doses at home will benefit both patients and health care providers.

“(It’s) much more patient-centered, trauma-informed, really state-of-the-art and evidence-based,” she said. “Now we know how it should be done and the law, essentially, is catching up to it.”

How this will change opioid addiction treatment in Arizona

According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, there have been 847 confirmed opioid-related deaths so far this year. There were also more than 1,900 opioid-related deaths and more than 4,000 confirmed overdoses in Arizona last year.

The relaxed regulations could help combat opioid addiction crisis in Arizona.

Clinics across the state will have lots of discretion when deciding which patients qualify for at-home doses. Doctors and patients will work closely to decide whether taking methadone at home is appropriate.

Now, eligible patients will be saved from having to jump through the daily hoops of driving to a methadone clinic each day.

“Holding down a job, managing the kids, getting them to school, any kind of stable life thing that we would associate with being well and managed, really is upset by the daily trip to the clinic,” Meyerson said.

It’s one thing to drive to a clinic in the Valley, but people in rural areas have unique geographic challenges that make recovery even harder, she added.

“Think about people in more rural areas. They just can’t get access to this life-saving treatment, or they must drive an hour each way, and spend God knows how long at the clinic,” Meyerson said.

Some patients can be at the clinic for hours, which destabilizes their to plan a life around addiction recovery, she added.

“The new regulations actually set things right and normalize methadone treatment in ways that it should be,” Meyerson said. “We’ve got a long way to go, but this is the right direction.”

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Heidi Hommel contributed to this report.