New Managed Care Study Findings Have Been Reported by Researchers at University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine (Buprenorphine prescribing is increasingly delivered by primary care nurse practitioners to Medicaid beneficiaries): Managed Care

2026 MAR 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Managed Care. According to news reporting from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Medicaid beneficiaries have disparate access to buprenorphine, a lifesaving medication for opioid use disorder (OUD) that can be prescribed in primary care settings. Nurse practitioners (NPs) are a growing primary care workforce, but their buprenorphine prescribing habits compared with physicians and the impact of recent policy changes on their practice is unknown.”

Financial supporters for this research include National Institute of Mental Health, National Clinician Scholars Program, Contract between University of Pennsylvania and Community Behavioral Health, National Institute of Drug Abuse.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, “To characterize buprenorphine prescribing by primary care NPs and physicians to Medicaid beneficiaries with OUD and to examine the impact of the removal of the buprenorphine waiver on prescribing behavior. A retrospective analysis was conducted using Medicaid prescription data from Philadelphia between 2017 and 2023. Descriptive statistics along with t-tests were conducted to analyze the data. Clinical complexity was measured by presence of comorbidities indicating more severe OUD (e.g., hepatitis C, wounds). Primary care NPs became the largest group of buprenorphine prescribers to Medicaid beneficiaries with OUD by 2023. Both physicians and NPs treated patients with similar levels of clinical complexity. The removal of the X-waiver was not associated with significant changes in buprenorphine prescribing rates for either provider type. NPs play a critical role in expanding access to buprenorphine treatment for Medicaid patients with OUD. Similar patient complexity across providers supports the potential for broader NP involvement in OUD care.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The lack of change after X-waiver removal suggests that other factors influence prescribing practices.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Buprenorphine prescribing is increasingly delivered by primary care nurse practitioners to Medicaid beneficiaries. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 2026. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Emily Lorenc, Center for Mental Health, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Additional authors for this research include Eleanor Turi, Oluwatoyin Fadeyibi, Jewell Johnson, Corey Ryhal, Suet Lim, Samuel Williams, Lisa Shen, Peggy Compton and Molly Candon.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1097/jxx.0000000000001258. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Publisher contact information for the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners is: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA.

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